


Interrogated Sociopath

by Emimar



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-13 13:12:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 29,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1227676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emimar/pseuds/Emimar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Title: Interrogated Sociopath<br/>Author: Emimar<br/>Characters: Flik Sivrak, Shiba Black, Kat Ros, Riv Shiel, Azet<br/>Era: Just after ROTJ<br/>Rating: PG-13<br/>Category: Action<br/>Summary: After the events of Redemption, Flik and Shiba, taking Kat Ros with them, return to Ord Mantell seeking a pilot to help them set up the base on Uvena III. After a confrontation with Kaitlin’s parents, Kat sets off on her own to look for a pilot herself, only that’s not the only thing she finds…<br/>Disclaimers: I have not, am not, and will not recieve any profit from the creation of this story. I do not own any of the canon Star Wars characters that feature in this story. The lyrics, belong to Goldfinger</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Now that I know you work for them,

Now that I know your life is based around such lives and corporate greed,  
You only believe what you are told,  
You only defend laws that are old because it’s law,  
Don’t make it right

And now I’m jaded, friends turn to enemies,  
All my life,  
I’ve done what I’ve been asked,  
So who is right?  
The one behind the mask

Behind the Mask, Goldfinger  
If I become what they had taught me that is wrong,  
I lose allegiance to the country that I’m born,  
The country that I am born,

I always knew that they would find nothing,  
No weapons, just a mind of my own,  
This country was built only on treason,  
These homes for the slaves,  
Homes for the slaves

Iron Fist, Goldfinger

Chapter 1

“You said, wolfman, that when you took my daughter away that she would stop living a life of crime, yet I have this,” Kaitlin’s father thrust the poster displaying his daughter’s bounty in Flik Sivrak’s face. After deciding to visit her parents on their trip to Ord Mantell, seeking a smuggler to help supply the new Ackley base on Uvena III with hardware, food and medical supplies, Flik was beginning to think stopping off at the farm belonging to Kat’s parents was a bad idea.

Azara, Kaitlin’s mother backed her husband up. “You said you’d wanted to take her away for schooling, Mr Sivrak,” she said, trying to be more respectful, as Flik and Shiba had secured the funds they needed to set up their farm again, even if it was on Ord Mantell and not their home on Chandrilla. “Yet we find our daughter is a wanted terrorist.” She used the tone of care to explain this? she used with her children.

Shiba glanced over at Flik, her gaze asking him if she should tell them the truth, but Flik shook his head negatively. He didn’t want to reveal that if they didn’t have to.

“I know that it looks dire -” Flik began, but Kat’s father’s angry outburst cut him off.

“Dire? Dire? You’ve ruined her life, wolfman.”

Flik used Jedi breathing exercises to calm himself down, lest he let his species’ natural response to such aggression take control of him. Shiba had no such compunction.

Shiba snorted, rather unlady-like. “From what I saw, Mr Ros, your daughter had already done a good job messing up her own life herself before we intervened.”

“That’s enough, Shiba,” Flik said, having regained control of himself. “Let me handle this.”

Shiba shot daggers at him – she resented it when he talked to her as he would the rest of the Ackley, instead of has his wife, but she understood the need to present a united front in front of these people, just like they’d had to when dealing with Hutts and other clients during their time as bounty hunters. That conversation would have to come later.

“I see no choice but to disown her,” Kaitlin’s father’s next announcement brought Shiba’s attention back to him.

“Andrin!” Azara said, exasperated. 

“Oh do shut up woman! Do you really think I wanted to do this?” he rounded on her. “She was never content with just being a petty criminal – she’s become dangerous too. I don’t want the Empire coming here and taking away our livelihood again.”

Shiba exchanged a glance with Flik as the “enemy” fought amongst themselves. She caught a self-satisfied grin on his face that quickly evaporated before their “enemy” could notice. 

“So this, this farm is more important to you than our daughter?” Azara all but screamed at him.

“We have other children, Azara. It’s them I’m thinking about. I’m doing this for Danin, Lena and Joel. Kaitlin is no longer our daughter.”

Shiba looked like she was going to deck the man, but a restraining hand on her shoulder calmed her enough to prevent that.

“I think it’s time we should tell them,” Shiba said, instead.

Flik reluctantly nodded his agreement as Andrin broke off from his heated discussion with his wife. “Tell us what, wolfman?” he asked, deliberately ignoring Shiba. 

Shiba reached for the blaster that usually hung in the holster at her hip, but remembered when her fingers brushed empty air that she’d left it in the hired landspeeder they’d used to get out here. They usually used the swoop, but with the three of them, it had been more convenient to use a landspeeder than a swoop. Thinking of which, Kaitlin herself hadn’t spoken a word since greeting her parents when they first arrived.

“For the past eight months, your daughter has been a member of the Ackley, an elite group of Rebel Commandos. Since she’s been with us, I’ve taught her piloting skills and Shiba here as taught her basic medicine. As we are Rebel Commandos, we all have a bounty or death mark on our heads.”

“You think this makes things any better? Even knowing that she’s a Rebel could implicate us as well.”

Flik understood the man’s fear. Guilty by association. His entire family as far as he knew, had met their deaths at the hands of the Empire, apart from himself and his grandson, Zak, though there was a remote possibility that his niece and nephew, Nakita and Ryqik Dek were still alive, but as yet he had no proof.

He tried to put a positive note on the situation. “It is only a matter of time before the Empire is gone for good. Palpatine and Vader are both dead. Your family will one day be safe.”

“Look, it’s not that I don’t want the Empire to be gone, I do, nor do I not appreciate the sacrifice you and your people make, but I just never expected my family to be involved. I just can’t have the battle on my own doorstep. You understand that, don’t you?”

“Of course,” Flik said, remembering the old epitome – for evil to succeed, it only needs good men to do nothing. Even with Palpatine gone, his legacy of fear looked set to remain for sometime to come. He was glad he had such people like this man’s daughter in the Ackley who weren’t afraid to stand up to oppose that evil.

It seemed that there was nothing more he and Shiba could do here.

“Shiba, Kaitlin, I think it’s time we left,” Flik said, heading for the door. He stopped in his tracks and turned around at the sound of Shiba’s voice.

“Just a minute, Flik. Kat’s not here,” Shiba said.

Since observing that Kat had been too quiet, during the heated discussion with her parents, Shiba had looked around for her, but couldn’t find her and concluded that she must have slipped out unnoticed.

Flik muttered a silent curse to himself as he scouted around the room for her scent. He found it and followed her trail to the back door and went outside, skirted around the house and farm outbuildings until he was at the front of the house, before confirming that she was indeed, gone, as the landspeeder they had hired was missing too.

“Great! She took off!” Shiba exclaimed, having followed him, with Kat’s parents in tow.

“Azara, go get Danin, so he can drive these folks out of here,” Andrin ordered his wife.

Azara nodded silently and went back into the house to fetch her oldest son. The harsh note in Andrin’s voice suggested that he didn’t like the fact that he would have to give them the use of his landspeeder, but he wanted to get them off his property as soon as he could. Flik and Shiba didn’t mind; they didn’t want to remain on the farm any longer than necessity dictated, either.


	2. Chapter 2

“I can’t believe that someone would do that to their own daughter,” Shiba said to Flik as the rocky landscape of Ord Mantell sped past them. In the west, the sun could be seen dropping under the horizon, spreading a red and orange glow across that portion of the cloudless sky. In the east, twilight had started to creep into the sky, but it was still too light for the brightest stars to be seen.

Flik’s muzzle creased as he bared his fangs in a bitter smile, and his ears pricked up to their full height, the Shistavanen expression of anger, or aggression. “The Empire has that effect on people,” he simply replied.

Danin, who’d caught their conversation and was driving the vehicle, looked over his shoulder for a second before turning his attention back on to the trail in front of them. His mother had filled him in on the events that had happened in his parent’s lounge. 

“My mum said that she would try to talk some sense into my dad,” he said.

Shiba, in a mood for sarcastic comments, said, “Well, good luck to her is all I can say.” She’d met men like Andrin Ros before when she had run her practice on Corellia, though then it had been more of a father or husband trying to protect his husband or child from her, either because she specialised in non-human medicine if the family happened to be human, or because she was a human doctor treating a non-human family, and mistrusted her because of the anti-alien sentiment common in the Empire. This misconception led them to think that she was working for them in an effort to introduce new diseases to them, which upset Shiba, as she would never have done such a thing as it contradicted her Hippocratic oath. Her best patients had been the Drall and Selonians, because they were native to the Corellian System. The Drall excepted her because they were used to dealing with humans, and the Selonians had no qualms on her being a human doctor because their society was made up of mostly infertile females, with a society structured like that of social insects. Most usually over came their mistrust when they learnt of her Alderaanian origin.

“You must understand, though, that times have been tough on my parents since our farm on Chandrilla was seized and we were forced to move to Ord Mantell. Then when Kat started stealing and stuff like that, they’d felt like they’d failed her somehow. When you came along, they trusted you to help steer her away from that life,” Danin said. Though he didn’t like what had transpired, he still felt like he should defend his father from Shiba’s defamation of his character.

“We did. Shiba taught her basic first aid and I taught her to pilot starships,” Flik said, leaving out the little matter of training her to be a Jedi – Force users were still anathema in many parts of the galaxy and revealing that would only complicate things.

“It seems like you’ve done her some good,” Danin had to concede that point.

“Your father would probably come to the conclusion that she’s the leader of a notorious smuggling gang, specialising in spice and stealing priceless jewellery and art,” Shiba said, unable to resist that jibe. A sharp look from Flik told her that she had gone too far with that comment. 

“She just needed something positive to focus on,” Flik said. “When I first met her, she thought that she was helping her family by stealing from the gangsters, but it was a good thing that we came along before they started focusing their attention on your family.”

“That’s a fair assessment of the situation I think,” Danin said. “Dad’s just angry that this bounty thing has upset his plans somewhat.”

“How so?” Shiba asked, speaking the first words that didn’t have a sarcastic ring to them. There was always something that remained unseen below the surface.

“Well,” Danin paused, wondering just how much he should tell them of his family’s business, but after a moment of contemplation, he decided that the truth couldn’t hurt. “He’s been in contact with an old friend back on Chandrilla, Calvan Lodon, is his name. Lodon owns much of the farmland on Chandrilla and has a son a couple of years older than Kat, about my age.”

“And your dad wants to marry her off to this son,” Shiba said, seeing where this was going. “Son of a Sith Witch - ”

“Exactly,” Danin said, and both Shiba and Flik caught a note in his voice that he didn’t like this manipulation of his sister. “I knew him at school and he used to hang around our old farm all the time back home. Brandon used to be my best friend back then, until - ”

“There was an incident with Kat?” Flik guessed.

“Yes. Let’s just say that Kat hates his guts ‘cos she thinks he’s a creep, and she’s right.”

Flik’s ears moved into their most erect position and his hackles rouse before he could calm his emotion down. “Kat has no say in this, I suppose, and I sense that you don’t approve.”

“Dad thinks he’s doing the right thing by Kat, and himself, of course, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. There have been rumours that Brandon’s dad had been behind our eviction and that of other farmers so he could buy up the land. Even before our eviction, he was the biggest landowner and had the most influence with the Imperials.”

“Why would Lodon do this if your father was his friend?” Shiba asked, intrigued.

“The incident with Kat almost ruined his son’s reputation, and well, let’s just say that sometimes, business and politics comes before friendship sometimes. There was a lot of unrest on Chandrilla around that time, what with Mon Mothma being a native and all. After what had happened to Alderaan, everyone feared that Chandrilla would be the Empire’s next target, and if the first Death Star hadn’t been destroyed when it had been, there’s little doubt that it would have been. Like you said, Palpatine and Vader are dead now, perhaps we can now finally go home, but my dad needs to convince Lodon to give him our old land back. It’s not just that we want to go home, Mr Sivrak, but our farm on Chandrilla was more productive than the one here has ever been.”

That wouldn’t be the first time, Flik noted. Now it was his turn to be angry, but he kept his emotions buried. He applauded the fact that Kat’s family wanted to go home, but not the way Kat’s father was going about it.

“Kat would go ballistic if she knew,” Flik said, instead of giving vent to what he felt inside.

“Kat always was more independent than what was good for her, but I’ve never liked people who manipulate their kids like that, even if one of them was my own parent,” Danin continued.

“What does your mum think of it?” Shiba asked.

“She supports my father, but only because he’s not told her about the other stuff. She just wants Kat to be happy and thinks marrying Brandon would do that.”

“Even if Kat doesn’t like him?”

“Dad never told her what happened between Brandon and Kat, at least not the full truth anyway. She thinks it was just a matter of two lovers being too young for each other at the time. I must admit, I’ve helped maintain that deception, but only to stop my mum from worrying about it.”

Flik sighed. Perhaps there had been at least one good reason forbidding Jedi to marry, and manipulative parents was it.


	3. Chapter 3

Kaitlin brought the landspeeder to a halt outside the first cantina she came to once she’d entered the sprawling metropolis that housed Ord Mantell’s largest spaceport about 50 klicks from her parent’s farm. It was the same city she had haunted back in her early teenage years, the same one in which she’d met Shivron and Silone. Silone had been the boy whom had taught her the basics of breaking into places, but had been unattached to any of the gangs that operated in the city. Silone had been killed by gang members when he with Kat, had proven to be more successful than them at stealing things, but didn’t want to be apart of their gang. If Shiba and Flik hadn’t shown up at that precise moment, she would have been dead too. They’d gone to Shivron’s home then, only to arrive just in time to stop Stormtroopers from killing him. The rest of his family had already died. 

This had been the first time Kat had come “home” as it were, since those events. Of course, she was apprehensive about coming across any of her former rivals, but her time in the Ackley and with Flik had toughened her up somewhat, even if it seemed she still couldn’t face her father and mother. 

Night had fallen since the beginning of her flight from her parents’ farm, and she sat in the landspeeder for a moment, wondering if she should contact Flik and Shiba to tell them where she was, but she lacked the courage to face them both at that moment, so she put a call through to Lobo, explaining where she was. 

“Hi Lobo. Could you record this message for Flik and Shiba?” she asked the AI after patching through to it. 

“Sure thing, Mistress Kaitlin,” the AI replied. “It’s recording now.”

“I’m sorry I bailed out on you like that, but I just had to get out of that place, so I’m heading for the nearest cantina and I’m going to spend a couple of hours in there to let off some steam. If you’re lucky, I might find the freighter pilot we need. Meet you back at the Warrior, at say, 23:00 hours? See you then.”

“Is that the end of the message?” Lobo asked, after Kat had stopped speaking.

“Yes. See you later, Lobo,” Kat said, cutting off the signal.

She checked her blaster and her newly constructed lightsabre before pulling herself out of her seat and dropping down on to the pavement. She wasn’t as proficient at using her lighsabre as Flik was, as she had only just started training with it, but its presence there gave her a confidence she had never felt before, and as the cantinas of Ord Mantell were almost as notorious as the one at Mos Eisley, for violence, that was a good thing. She was taking a risk entering the place, but she wanted risk at that moment. Besides which, she was so mad at her father for talking to Flik and Shiba that way after all they’d done for her and her family, that it was the potential attacking thugs who should be weary of her, not the other way round. 

Still, she could almost hear Flik’s voice in her head chiding her that Jedi do not go looking for trouble, and she had no intention of doing that. If there were going to be any trouble, then she’d let that trouble come find her, not the other way round.

The fledgling night had chased away the heat of the day and with it, her temper, too, but the night’s coolness hadn’t reigned in her temper fully.

As she entered the bar, a wall of smoke and the scent of unwashed bodies assaulted her. After a moment, or two of waiting while her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Kat saw that the place was busy.

A young Rodian thug rose from his seat and headed towards her. She recognised him as the younger brother of one of those gang members that Flik and Shiba had dispatched the last time she was on Ord Mantell. Evidently, he wanted revenge. Kat grinned inwardly at his approach.

“So the Kat is back,” he said. “I have a score to settle with you.”

He charged at her with a vibroblade, but Kat just stood there calmly and used the Force to yank the blade from his sucker-like fingers and snapped the blade in half. She hooked her leg around his and tripped him up, his momentum sending him sprawling to the floor. She let the two halves of the vibroblade fall to the floor and casually stepped over him. She considered rubbing in his humiliation with a taunt, but decided that silence would have more impact.

The only seat amiable, (apart from the one the Rodian had just vacated), was situated at the bar next to a burly looking Shistavanen male who sat in the corner. 

Miraculously, no one else bothered her after that display with the Rodian thug as she weaved her way through the crowd to the spot next to the Shistavanen. She put her credit chip down on the bar.

“Lomin ale, and make it quick,” she said to the bar tender as she sat down. The human bar tender took her money and in seconds, she had a tall glass of frothy Lomin ale in front of her. She drank it in one go, which nearly made her fall backwards off the stool as the bite of the alcohol kicked in. she felt a clawed hand catching her back.

“You have quite a thirst there, little lupa,” he said. “Would you allow me to buy you another?”

“Thank you,” Kat said, and chose a much fruiter drink this time, and she drank it with much more caution.

“Kaitlin Ros,” Kat supplied her name. “But you can call me Kat.”

“So I noticed when you took the Rodian down,” the wolfman said, indicating the Rodian, as he got to his feet. “Riv Shiel.”

Kat glanced where he indicated. The Rodian took one look at them and decided that it would be worth his while to make himself scarce, before Kaitlin did that for him. Kat turned back to the wolfman beside her and studied him for a moment. He was around fifteen years younger than Flik, in his mid twenties. He wore a tattered but recognisable flight suit and he had the faint scent of livestock on him. His fur was black in the darkness of the cantina, and the only features she could discern clearly in the darkness were his yellow orbs for eyes and the white flash of teeth, which were almost immaculate.

“You’re a pilot?” she asked.

“Was. I used to be a scout for the Empire before they cancelled the contract.”

“I’m sorry,” Kat said.

The contract cancellation for Shistavanen scouts was common among those that the Empire had employed before Lak Sivrak and others like him had begun to hide the existence of Rebel bases. Shistavanen scouts effected found employment difficult to come by afterwards, so many became Rebel pilots or smugglers. Kaitlin wondered why this particular wolfman hadn’t taken up either career. 

Riv flashed his fangs in an ironic smile in the gloom. “Don’t be. I only took the job because none other was available. I would have quit and saved them the trouble of cancelling the contract myself if I had found another that wouldn’t endanger my family.”

Kat nodded, her mind going back to the discussion Flik and Shiba had been having with her parents only an hour or two before. That just seemed to be the usual pattern these days, and it explained why he’d not taken up a job as a Rebel pilot, or a smuggler.

“You out of work now?” Kaitlin asked.

The wolfman’s ears flattened against his head, as if in shame. “Yes, at least pilot work.”

Kaitlin considered her next words carefully. She wanted to help the wolfman if she could, but did she have the right to offer him a job that could endanger his family? He has to accept it first, she told herself.

“It just so happens that my friends and I are looking for a pilot to transport goods.”

“You supply the ship, little lupa, I’ll supply the piloting skills.”

That hit a snag – what they really wanted was someone with their own ship, and Kat immediately understood just what his problem at finding work was.

“To be honest, we were hoping the pilot would have a ship, but I’ll talk to my friends, see what can be done.”

Riv let out a sigh of resignation, and it seemed that Kat’s initial assessment was correct. “I would have had a ship, but the Empire took possession of it when they cancelled my contract. I have been working as a farm labourer to support my family, but the pay is dire. I come here in the evenings seeking pilot work, but not much luck without a ship.”

Kat nodded. “ I can’t promise you anything, but maybe my friends can help you out.”

The wolfman’s ears pricked up a little in gratitude, and his voice had a slight yip to it as he said, “That would be great.”

Kat cursed under her breath as a squad of Sormtroopers, led by an officer in an Imperial uniform, entered the cantina. 

“Looks like your Rodian friend’s been talking with the Imps,” Riv said, growling softly, when they seemed to be heading in their direction. Kat was thinking exactly the same thing, until they completely ignored her and went straight for Riv Shiel instead. Riv let out a low warning growl, as his right hand sought his blaster.

The officer stopped in front of them and the Stormtroopers cleared away the patrons and tables from their path. The Imperial officer was the first to speak.

“Lak Sivrak, I have a warrant for your arrest.”

Riv Shiel brought his blaster up, but it was Kat who took the first strike. While their attention had been on Riv, she’d pulled out her lighsabre and finished igniting it just as the officer’s words had left his lips. Her first slash took off the arm of the nearest Stormtrooper, taking his blaster rifle with it.

“Back off, Imperial pig. Lak Sivrak died at Endor.”

“Take them both down!” the Imperial officer bellowed as Riv Shiel fired his first shot. Kaitlin worked to deflect the Stormtroopers’ blaster rifle shots that along with her lightsabre, lit up the cantina. 

Riv Shiel was a good marksman and was able to take down the Stormtroopers without Kaitlin having to take a single one down herself, but her presence kept the red blaster rifle fire from causing damage to either her or Riv Shiel, though she couldn’t say the same about the rest of the cantina. Even though she defended herself and the wolfman adequately, she still needed to learn more control over her lightsabre.

Seeing that his Stormtroopers were losing the short fight, the Imperial officer scampered away in the confusion, using the fleeing patrons as cover. 

After the brief but intense fire fight, she and Riv Shiel surveyed the carnage as they caught their breath.

“Come,” Riv gripped Kaitlin’s wrist after she had deactivated her lightsabre. Kat nodded her understanding and followed the wolfman out of the cantina before reinforcements showed up.


	4. Chapter 4

“If we take the speeder, it’ll get us out of here sooner,” Kat said, heading towards the hired landspeeder she parked outside the cantina earlier.

Riv nodded and swung into the driver’s seat before Kat could take it herself. 

“Hey!” Kat protested.

“I need to check on my family. If the Imps traced me to the cantina - ”

“Okay,” Kat said, walking around to the other side of the speeder and vaulted into the seat next to him. “But you won’t be going anywhere without this.”

With a murmured, “Thanks,” the wolfman snatched the electronic key that she dangled in front of him.

“Be careful – this vehicle’s hired. If there’s some damage, I won’t get my deposit back,” Kat warned him as he inserted the key into its slot and urged the landspeeder forward.

He glanced at her. “Somehow, that would be the least of my worries, don’t you think?” he snarled, harsher than he’d intended.

Anxiety radiated from him like heat and light from a thousand different suns. After witnessing what had happened to Shivron’s family, Kat couldn’t blame him. She couldn’t think of anything to say that would comfort him and wouldn’t sound patronising at the same time, so she stayed silent. The wolfman took her silence to mean that he had hurt her feelings.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap,” he said.

“Don’t worry about it. Like you said, that’s the least of your worries, right?” Kat said, trying to break the tension of the situation. After fifteen minutes or so of driving, he brought the landspeeder to a halt.

“We walk from here,” Riv said, slipping the key from its slot and handing it back to her. “We’ve got to make sure that no one’s there before we go in.”

Kat nodded, closing her eyes for a moment, concentrating, and stretching out with the Force. There was something there at the edges that spoke of death, but other than that, it seemed clear.

“It’s clear,” she informed him. She didn’t tell him of the death she had detected, as she didn’t know what that meant yet. It could just as easily be a dead animal killed by another for all she knew. “It’s best to remain cautious,” she added instead.

The wolfman nodded and helped her out of the landspeeder, as he’d exited while she had been concentrating on what the Force was telling her. He drew his blaster and trotted quickly but stealthily to the street where his home resided. Kat had to marvel at his stealth as she followed a few metres behind, her blaster ready at her side, also.

The house that Riv Shiel led her to was little more than a hovel, but the stench of death reached Kaitlin’s nostrils before they even went inside. Riv holstered his blaster, as did Kaitlin, as there seemed to be no use for them. They were too late. The outside was just like the hovel she and her family had stayed in before they got the farm, but the inside reminded her of Shivron’s house father the Stormtrooper raid, only this time, there wasn’t going to be survivor. 

Bile stirred up in her throat as they entered the lounge, as that was where they found their first grim discovery. It was a frail old female, Riv’s mother. He knelt down at her side and checked for a pulse. Kaitlin needed no such thing to tell her she was dead; as she felt no stirring of life within her. Half a metre away from Riv’s mother lay another body, smaller, a young female Shistavanen child, no older than Jeana, Shiba’s daughter. Evidently, Riv’s mother had been trying to protect her when she died. A memory of fighting her way through smoke with Jeana and Zak flashed in her mind, and not only did the sight of the dead child before her made her feel ill, but so did the thought that the same fate could have befallen Jeana and Zak if Kat hadn’t gone back for them. The sight before her caused Kat’s heart to shatter and she wanted to disgorge the contents of her stomach.

“Kiyah,” the name of his daughter came out as a growl as Riv’s attention turned from his mother to his daughter. Both had been killed by blaster rifle shots. He rose to his feet and tore into the room that was the kitchen, hoping to find that his mate had escaped, but the scene that met them was worse. In there they found the body of a lupa closer to Riv Shiel’s age, which Kat took to be his mate. Both of them had to look away at the sight, for her stomach had been ripped open and a foetus lay at her side.

Riv’s knees lost all their strength at that point and he sank to the floor and let out the most painful howl of anguish that Kaitlin had ever heard. She knelt down beside him and wrapped her arms around him. He didn’t make a move to push her aside. The Empire’s evil hadn’t ended with the death of Palpatine.

After what seemed like an eternity, Riv’s initial grief at the death of his family subsided, and he became aware that he was in Kaitlin’s embrace. His lupine eyes stared into hers for a long moment. Kaitlin realised at that moment that she felt more than pity for him at his loss, but it was only a fleeting emotion, one that didn’t last long enough for her to analyse what it actually meant.

She was the first to get to her feet, and Riv followed suit, looking at the scene around them before his gaze settled at last on Kaitlin. She felt butterflies flutter around in her stomach, different from the nausea that had gripped her before and she realised that what she was experiencing was a crush, and because it was a strange situation for that to occur, she pushed it aside, to deal with later. Riv’s next words also helped her to focus her attention back on to the reality of their surroundings.

“There was no need for them to do this.”

She detected a hint of why did they do this? in his voice. She didn’t have an answer to that, but there was one truth that had become clear to her ever since Shivron had lost his family.

“The life of a ‘non-human’ means nothing to them,” she said, matter of factly. “But that doesn’t make it right.”

Though she hated to leave behind the bodies of his family, especially his daughter, Kiyah and his mate, she saw that she needed to get him out of there, to help him think more clearly. She placed her hand on his back and they started to walk towards the door.

“Come on. My friends will be able to help you.” 

Riv nodded, as the numb feeling of helplessness that accompanied grief began to take hold of him. As they made their way through the senseless death that had once been his home, the house began to fill with a thick noxious gas that made their eyes and noses stream with water and their throats and lungs burn. It happened so quickly that the first either of them knew about it was when they started coughing and choking. Kat wiped her eyes and mouth and leaned into him. They both continued walking, or more like stumbling forward for a couple of steps before their knees gave way beneath them and they fell to the floor as darkness descended over them.


	5. Chapter 5

As Danin brought the landspeeder closer to the spaceport where the Warrior was docked, Flik decided to put forward the offer that he’d been thinking of making Danin ever since their fist meeting, for he’d sensed Danin was Force-sensitive like his sister.

“You know, Danin, you would be welcome in the Ackley, and we are a couple of hands short since our last meeting.”

Shiba looked at him, puzzlement evident on her face; yes they had lost Quan and Cathos. Quan had died during the mission to break out the Bothan Intelligence Operative, Shara Kre’lar from an Imperial Detention Centre and Cathos had been a casualty at Endor, when the freighter he and other members of the Ackley had been on had crashed. The rest of them had survived, but the Gotal had died in the crash when a falling tree had crushed part of the cockpit.

Danin shook his head. “I’d have to decline. It’s enough for me to know that is out there, fighting for people like us. If it were just me and her, then I’d gladly join you, but if I left too, dad would drive my mum crazy. And of course, there’s my younger brother and sister to take care of.”

“I understand,” Flik said, trying to keep a note of disappointment out of his voice. “ The offer still stands if you change your mind, though.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Danin said.

“You can drop us off about here,” Shiba said, as they were a couple of blocks from the spaceport. With the onset of night, the air had cooled down somewhat and aside from the fact that they wanted to avoid being followed, Shiba felt like walking. Physical activity of any kind would work off the frustration she felt inside. She glanced at Flik as Danin brought the landspeeder to a halt and knew that he had the same idea.

They said their farewells to Danin and when the landspeeder was out of sight, Shiba decided to continue their earlier conversation without Danin being there to over hear her.

“He’s such a creep.”

“Danin?” Flik asked, creasing his muzzle slightly, the Shistavanen equivalent of raising eyebrows as he glanced at her. He knew whom she meant, but he just wanted to tease her a little.

“No, Kat’s dad. He’s one of those, ‘You’re my daughter so you’re my property,’ kind of person. Makes you wanna throw up or throw a punch at him, which ever’s the most appropriate. If there was a bounty on him, I’d have no problem taking him out.”

“I know you don’t really like the guy, but I think it’s about time you dropped this.”

A wicked smile crossed Shiba’s face. “I’ve had an idea – we could always find this Lodon guy, tell him that Kat’s dad has put out a price on his head, convince him to do the same to Kat’s father and we could take the bounty.”

Flik let out a low rumble of growling laughter, thinking she was jesting.

Shiba frowned at him. “I’m serious, Sivrak.”

“Shiba, we don’t do that sort of thing anymore.”

Shiba blatantly ignored him. “He’s a scummy man, Sivrak. The only thing that’s really holding me back is the fact that he’s Kat’s father.”

“Well, at least you’re starting to see sense.”

“We could use the money, though,” Shiba said, as Flik’s frown became more marked. “Now don’t give me this ‘aggression is not the path a Jedi should take,’ nonsense.”

Flik shook his head in exasperation. “You’re insane, doctor. You should see a physiatrist.”

“It’s your fault I’m like this, Sivrak. Before our paths crossed, I was just a nice, stable respectable doctor.”

“You sought me out, remember? Besides, we’re not gonna do it, Shiba.”

“The voice of conscience, now are you?”

Flik was just glad that none of the other Ackley where there to see this argument/insult slinging match between them, even if some of it was in part jest.

“I’m a Jedi,” was his simple response.

By this time, they had come to the spaceport. Unlike more security conscious worlds like Corellia or Coruscant, there were no security checks they needed to pass through, which was one of the main reasons why Flik had chosen Ord Mantell in the first place. Flik had concluded that the spaceport and their ship the Forgotten Warrior was the most likely place where Kat would have gone to since her departure from her parent’s farm, but when they boarded the Forgotten Warrior, there was no trace of her in or around the Shistavanen Scout ship.

“I’m going to check to see if she’s left any messages,” Flik informed Shiba and headed for the galley, leaving her to her own devices.

Flik sank down onto one of the benches surrounding the small table in the galley.

“Lobo, have you heard anything from Kaitlin?” Flik asked the ship’s AI.

“She called in thirty minutes before you arrived. Shall I play the message?” Lobo’s disembodied electrical voice replied, with none of his usual inefficiencies. That alone caused Flik to suspect something was not quite right.

“Go ahead,” Flik ordered.

A second later, Kaitlin’s strained voice issued from hidden speakers. “I’m sorry I bailed out on you like that, but I just had to get out of that place, so I’m heading for the nearest cantina and I’m going to spend a couple of hours in there to let off some steam. If you’re lucky, I might find the freighter pilot we need. Meet you back at the Warrior, at say, 23:00 hours? See you then.”

As the message ended, Shiba entered the galley with a create of medical supplies she’d been putting off cataloguing for the past few days.

“Did you find out what happened to Kat?” Shiba asked as she set the create down on to the table and headed over to the cupboards in search of hot chocolate.

“She’s gone to the cantina for a while.”

“Did she say which one?” Shiba asked, still foraging for the hot chocolate.

“No,” Flik said. “You can make me one, while you’re at it.”

“You sure that’s wise?” Shiba asked, having finally hunted the stray hot chocolate container down. 

“Having hot chocolate?” Flik said, with a grin, knowing that it would irritate her.

Shiba turned to face him. “No, that Kat’s gone to the cantina – she’s got the landspeeder to drive.”

“She’s a sensible girl - ” Flik said as Shiba turned back to her task.

“She’s a teenager.” 

“Point taken.”

There was a moment of silence before Shiba let out a curse.

“What is it, dear?” Flik asked.

“Out of hot chocolate. Kat’s doing, no doubt. She probably hid it from us. We’ll have to have caf instead.”

“That’s bad,” Flik admitted. He despised caf, but a drink was a drink and he was thirsty. Five minutes later, Shiba sat down next to him bringing the two steaming mugs of caf with her.

“I don’t think there’s any need to worry, Shib. She’s a Jedi in training.”

“It’s still early,” Shiba said. “Do you think we should go to the spaceport cantina so we can work on the real reason we’ve come here. We can take the swoop - ”

“Kat said that she was going to look into it. It’s ‘bout time she did something useful instead of drinking all the hot chocolate. Besides,” Flik said, turning to look at her with that penetrating lupine gaze of his. “the only reason you want to go to the cantina is so that you can see if Kat’s there.”

“So? Would it hurt if we did find her while we were looking for our pilot?” Shiba asked, a little irritated that he seemed to know her intentions. That’s the problem with Jedi, she cursed silently. The fact that he was a Shistavanen also meant he was very perceptive at reading body language too, not that it didn’t have it’s uses at certain times, but for much of the time, all it did was aggravate her. By this time, both their mugs were empty and she gathered them up to wash them in an attempt to hide her irritation.

“We’re not her parents, Shiba. Even if she isn’t successful at securing a pilot, we can look tomorrow. It won’t put us behind schedule.” He stood up and walked over to her and took her in his arms. “I think we should spend this impromptu time we have to relax and enjoy ourselves.”

“These medical supplies should have been catalogued days ago,” Shiba protested, teasing him. She knew exactly what was on his mind.

“No screaming kids, no Zan to annoy us, no Imperials shooting at our backs. The medical supplies can wait until we’re going home. There’s little else to do in hyperspace, anyway. It’s not often we get time to ourselves like this. We can go to the cargo bay, do a little Teras Kasi first if it’ll make you feel less guilty,” he whispered quietly in her ear.

“Okay, okay. It’s early. I have time to do these later on,” Shiba said, giving in to him.

“That’s the idea.”

Flik led her off to the cargo bay. Shiba never did get started on cataloguing those medical supplies that night.


	6. Chapter 6

The faint humming of repulsor lifts cut into the haze that clung to Riv’s mind, slowly bringing him to full wakefulness. He became aware of nausea in his stomach and a pounding in his head that seemed to vibrate in time with the motion of the repulsor van and conspired to keep him down. He opened his eyes and looked upon a world of black and grey shadows that shifted with the repulsor van’s movement. He found himself on his stomach, which only made the nausea in his stomach more pronounced so to ease the pressure, he pushed himself up into a sitting position and waited while the blurriness that plagued his vision cleared.

His nose and ears picked up the presence of another occupant in the van with him long before his eyes registered the shape of her body. The confusion that fogged his mind lifted as he remembered the scent of her and visions of his family slaughtered in what had been his home came back to him. Even if it was safe to go back there, Riv doubted that he could look upon that hovel as his home again. The scent of his family’s’ death would always linger there, reminding him of that horror.

Mindful of the pounding in his head, and the lurching of his unsettled stomach, he shuffled over to the unconscious body of the blonde haired human female he’d met in the cantina. His ears picked up the sound of her shallow, but regular breathing. He saw that like him, she was laid on her front and he rolled her over on to her back, which was quite a feat, as he had to battle his own sickness and his pounding head all the way. Once he’d got her on to her back, he pressed his clawed fingers to her neck, seeking a pulse. It was weak but regular.

That activity bought a burning taste of bile to his throat and he swallowed as the nausea built up to almost unbearable levels, closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing to control that sick breathing. It was more than just the effects of the gas that had been used on them – it was in part that sick feeling of hollow dread that accompanied the knowledge of knowing you’d never see those you cared about again. 

His throat constricted at the thought of it, and he struggled to breathe for the next few minutes.

He pushed his grief aside as his mind focused on bloody vengeance, but if he was going to achieve that, he first had to get himself out of the situation he was in.

Having gained control of his nausea, the pounding in his head began to ease. He tried to rouse the human female, Kat, he recalled her name, but she was out cold, unresponsive to his attempts to wake her.

He checked for his blaster, but found it absent, and then he looked over Kat, to see if they’d missed anything, but if nothing else, their captors had been through and efficient at disarming them.

He pounded the decking with his fist in frustration, leaving a dent in its surface. Kat groaned in response, and he watched her for a moment or two, thinking that she’d come round, but sleep still had hold of her body.

He spent the next five to ten minutes looking for a weakness in their moving prison, but the only thing he found were the doors he presumed he and Kat had been shoved through by their captors. On closer inspection, he discovered that the doors were protected against tampering by electronic sensors that would alert their captors if he attempted any modification of them. He murmured a Shistavanen curse in annoyance.

So they’d have to wait until the doors opened when they reached their destination to attempt their escape. He figured they had one advantage though. Neither he nor Kat were bound in restraints, so he assumed that they didn’t expect the gas to be wear off so quick. 

He crouched down beside Kat again and attempted to revive her. Like the time before, he had little success. 

Riv was now faced with two choices: leave her behind, for he had no hope of taking her with him unconscious without a blaster, or stay with her. Neither prospect held much appeal for him, but he surmised that if he did succeed in his escape, there would be a chance of finding these friends of hers and rescuing her later. That seemed the only hope he had. After thinking it through, he decided on the former course of action.

He gave Kat’s unconscious form one last regretful look before he took up his position beside the doors. He strained his sensitive ears for any sign of the repulsor van slowing down. Adrenaline surged through his body as he waited, ready to spring. A change in air pressure outside told him that the repulsor van was slowing down, before coming to a halt as it reached their destination at last. 

Riv’s muscles ached as he waited for what seemed like forever for those doors to open. In his mind’s eye, he thought about what he would do once they opened, how he would do it. Anger at the loss of his family would lend him strength that even a Shistavanen didn’t normally possess and he would have to rely on that.

At last they opened to reveal a pair of Stormtroopers and an Imperial Officer. Riv him as the same one who had tried to arrest him in the cantina. Without thinking about it, Riv let out a bark of rage as he leapt over the helmeted heads of the Stormtroopers, landing on the Officer. It didn’t take much for Riv’s weight and strength to tackle him to the ground. It would have been wise for Riv to take advantage of his surprise attack but the close proximity to the Imperial Officer brought him new knowledge that sent all his restraint flying out the window.

He recognised the Officer’s scent as being present at the ruin of his home, the one who had ordered and overseen the slaughter of his family. He growled, staring into the eyes of his enemy. The scent of fear and something more unpleasant reached Riv’s nostrils as the Officer realised that the wolfman knew what crime he’d committed against him.

On instinct and with no regret, Riv’s jaws clamped around the Officer’s throat, fangs sinking into flesh and he ripped out a hole in his neck, dealing out death to the murderer of his family. Blood sprayed from the gapping wound as the life drained out of his enemy. 

Vengeance was his. 

Riv only had a moment to savour the taste of blood before he felt the sting of stun bolts slam into his back and his world became once again cloaked in darkness.


	7. Chapter 7

Shiba rolled over in her sleep, seeking the warm, furry body of her wolfman lover. When she found the bed absent of its other occupant, Shiba became instantly alert and groped around in the darkness for her trousers, black t-shirt and boots – when ever Flik wasn’t beside her in bed, it usually meant trouble was about. Once dressed, she grabbed for the blaster she kept at her bedside, checked its charge and listened at the door for sounds of blaster fire or other signs of conflict. When no sound of battle issued through the sliding door, Shiba punched the release mechanism and peered cautiously into the corridor. 

She found the corridor empty and saw dim light coming from the cargo bay. If there had been trouble, Flik would not have put the light on, as Shistavanens are good at getting around stealthily in the darkness, where it was a hindrance to humans. She gingerly stepped out into the corridor, still keeping her blaster primed for action if need be, and headed in the direction of the cargo bay.

When she entered the cargo bay, she found Flik prepping the swoop. He was dressed in his bounty hunting gear, black nerf hide trousers, jacket that concealed light body armour, and utility belt. She noted the array of weapons that he’d laid out on the metal bench beside the swoop, blaster rifle, vibrosword, wrist rockets, blaster pistol, vibroblades and his lightsabre, enough for an army. He looked up when he heard her enter and Shiba lowered the blaster she’d not realised she kept raised. Before she could ask what was wrong, Flik told her.

“Kaitlin hasn’t come back yet,” Flik explained. Shiba glanced at the digital chronometer that displayed the local time for that part of Ord Mantell and saw that it read 02:30. Kat should have been back hours ago.

“You’re going out to look for her?” Shiba asked.

Flik nodded. “There’s more. Lobo intercepted a report that a human female matching her description and a Shistavanen were hauled away by the Imperials after a disturbance at a cantina. Lobo was able to give me the address of the place where they picked her up. I was just on my way to go check it out.”

Shiba placed her hands on her hips. “What, without me?” she asked.

“I would have told you if there was anything to it. If I found Kat’s scent there, then I would know for sure it was her they got.”

She pointed to the weapons laid out on the bench. “That says there is something to it, Flik Sivrak. You still have a lot to learn about me.”

“I didn’t want to worry you unduly, Shib,” he said.

She almost felt like punching him. “Don’t ‘Shib’ me, Sivrak. You never used to be this overprotective and don’t give me that bantha dung about ‘I didn’t want to worry you.’ You and I both know that I’ve been in worse situations than this.”

“I’m sorry Shib,” Flik said, his ears laying flat against his head in apology and shame. Shiba regretted snapping at him. 

“I know why you worry. You’re afraid you’ll lose me the same way you lost Auoura, but Flik, you lost her because you left her behind, not because you took her with you. Don’t you think I worry the same about you? Whenever you go out there to face a battle on your own I fear for you because I’m not there with you.”

“I get it. Go get your stuff while I finish up here.”

Shiba nodded and turned to go out the cargo bay, but before she passed through the doorway, she stopped to look back at him. “You’d better not leave without me, Sivrak,” she said.

“I won’t. You have my word.”

Once Shiba had exited the cargo bay, Flik started to strap on his weapons. As he did so, he reflected on the differences between Shiba and his first love, Auoura. Though he would never have thought that Auoura had been any more weak-willed than Shiba, she had been content to let her Jedi Knight deal with any troubles they encountered. Where Shiba talked blasters and Teras Kasi, Auoura had spoken about art and culture. Auoura had been Shistavanen, like him, and on the surface, people would have thought that Shiba would have been the cultured one.

When he considered the Clone Wars and the subsequent Galactic Civil War, females of any species just couldn’t afford to be the delicate little flowers anymore, that they had to be roses, beautiful, but with hidden thorns. 

Anything delicate and weak about Shiba had been beaten out of her long ago, and the destruction of her homeworld made the difference. Shiba’s words from earlier came back to him, “It’s your fault I’m like this, Sivrak. Before our paths crossed, I was just a nice, stable respectable doctor.” Even though she had been joking, her words had stung him and he wondered just how much of Shiba’s willingness to put herself in danger had been his doing, as he had been rough on her in the first few months they’d known each other and just how much the Empire had been responsible for forging her. It often surprised him that their love had grown from those beginnings. It probably had something to do with the fact that they’d both lost their homes and much of their family to the malevolence of the Empire and they’d probably seen something in the other person’s personality that they’d both thought had been lost to themselves forever because of that loss. His younger self, he concluded, would have fallen for a delicate flower like Auoura just to satisfy his youthful ego, while his older, wiser self would have loved a woman like Shiba. 

Shiba’s return brought him out of his reverie. 

“Hey, Sivrak, I thought you were supposed to be finishing up here! The swoop’s not even set to go yet!”  
Flik’s head snapped up and he flashed his fangs at her in a grin. “What took you so long, doctor? I’ve been waiting for you.”

Shiba placed her hands on her hips and regarded him thoughtfully. “Just for that and your recent show of male chauvinism, I’m driving.”

“Only if you agree to make dinner for the whole of the Ackley when we get back home,” Flik countered.

“Deal, but don’t push your luck, fleaball.”


	8. Chapter 8

Kaitlin groaned as she regained consciousness. There was a faint throbbing down the right side of her head and a sick feeling to her stomach. Her neck ached from how she’d been laid after losing consciousness and the rest of her body felt like she’d run a 10,000 metre marathon. Her throat was as dry as Tattonine’s Dune Sea and felt just as dusty. She coughed to ease the irritation in her throat, but all it did was make her more thirsty than before and almost caused her delicate stomach to retch. 

When she finally opened her eyes, confusion wracked her mind for a moment before she remembered the brief scrap in the cantina and then the grim discovery at Riv Shiel’s house. Her eyes searched for any sign of him as the wolfman came to mind, but he was absent. Just as she realised that Riv was missing and before she had time to ponder on what had become of him, she heard booted footsteps in the corridor outside her prison. Two guards, she concluded from the amount and pattern of noise their steps were making, and as they got closer, she detected the faint scrabbling of claws on metal. 

At least he’s alive, she thought to herself. But for just how long?

They came to a halt at her door and the whooshing sound came to her ears as the door slid to the right, letting in painful bright light that caused the pounding in her head to become more pronounced. She caught the silhouette of two guards and a wolfman framed in the doorway before a dark mass of fur and muscle was pushed inside. The wolfman, too weak to stop his fall, stumbled before landing spread-eagled on the cold, metal floor. 

Kat, gaining control over her sluggish body, stumbled forward to help him, but one of the guards dealt a heavy blow to her abdomen with his stun baton that sent her crashing to the floor beside the inert wolfman. Air was forced out of her lungs and Kat only just managed to keep herself from disgorging the contents of her stomach as she turned to look up at the face of the grinning guard.

“Don’t even think about it, girly,” the guard sneered at her in that arrogant, condescending way that gave her the desire to bash his skull against the wall if she hadn’t felt so lousy. “There are worse things that we can do to you if you try to cause us trouble.”

The other guard’s stare sent shivers down her spine as he looked at her silently. His gaze made her feel like a piece of meat. To her relief, the guards backed out of the cell and the door slid shut behind them, letting the merciful darkness back into the cell.

When they were alone, Riv lifted his head to look at her. He was in pain that much she could tell just from his eyes. 

She swallowed a couple of times to clear her throat so she could speak. “What happened?” she asked, suspecting the Imperials had inflicted some sort of interrogation on him while they’d been separated.

Riv’s muzzle creased as he growled his choked reply. “Tried to escape, little lupa. Failed. Beaten with energy lash and stun baton was punishment.”

“So now we’re both together, eh? Kat and wolf,” Kaitlin said, an ironic note to her voice as she reached forward to feel the burns that crossed his furred back. He winced at her touch, even though it was only slight. “Sorry.”

“Guess so, little lupa,” he growled in reply to her comment, his voice clearer now than it had been. His teeth flashed in an ironic smile. “Still, it wasn’t a total loss. First, help me to sit up and I’ll explain.”

Kat did so, though it was a painful experience for the wolfman, but considering what he had already endured, the pain of sitting up was mild in comparison.

“I woke up on the way here and tried to raise you, but no matter what I did, you were completely out of it. I’d decided that the only chance either of us had was for me to escape and come back later for you, but obviously, I failed,” he paused for a moment, wanting to gage her reaction at the possibility that he would have abandoned her to the Imperials. Kat said nothing, her time spent with Flik Sivrak and the Ackley had taught her that sometimes, escape was better than fighting, even if some had to be left behind. You could always remedy the situation when you had backup.

Riv continued, a hint of aggressive excitement in his voice, “There was that Imp officer who’d confronted us earlier in the cantina waiting with some troopers to escort us out. He was responsible for the death of my family, little lupa, and I managed to kill him before the Stormtroopers took me out.”

“How? You would have had no weapons.” There was no hint of righteous outrage in her voice; Kat had seen enough of the Empire’s cruelties to know that sometimes they deserved what they received in return. She suspected that it was not a view that a Jedi in training should have, but she kept seeing the ruined bodies of his family in her mind’s eye, Shivron’s too and the fire that had nearly claimed her life and that of Flik and Shiba’s children. Even so, Riv’s next words did shock her a little, even if she couldn’t blame him for the way he’d reacted.

“I used my fangs, little lupa, showed him the mercy he never showed my lupas and unborn son. Given the chance, I would bring death to them all.”

An uncomfortable silence passed between them as Kaitlin contemplated on the consequences of his procurement and what they meant to her as a Jedi in training. Though she thought that she should condemn what he had done, she couldn’t help but accept it in a way she thought no Jedi should. The Empire had been responsible for more atrocities in the galaxy than what the wolfman before her had committed and he would never have done it had a crime not been perpetrated against his family first. The break up of her family, the death of Shiba’s husband and the destruction of her homeworld, the enslavement of Sholinar’s people: all these had been carried out or been the consequences of actions done by the Empire, directly or indirectly. Riv Shiel’s action, no matter how savage it seemed, was small in comparison. 

She understood why he wished all Imperials dead, as Shivron’s story also came to mind.

“I knew a family of Omwatti once. The Imperials did the same to them.”

“It’s what they do best.”

The silence returned to reign a few minutes more, before Kat got tried of it and asked him the question she’d been wanting to ask since the events at Riv’s home. “I know your daughter was called Kiyah, but what were the rest called?”

“My mate’s name was Sharnni. We were going to call our son Sharqak. The old one, my mother, was called Shian. I had an older brother, but he and my father died in the troubles between the Archetypes.”

Kat reached over and took his clawed hand in hers. She’d heard about those troubles. The Archetypes had once been the protectors of the Senator Mizet, during the last days of the Old Republic. Then they became the enforcers of the Empire in space that had once been controlled by the Shistavanens. Since Endor, though, one called Za had taken control of the system in a coup that had ensued in the confusion caused by Palpatine’s death. But that didn’t mean the system was now free, for Za ruled it with an iron fist and had allied himself with the warlords that had risen out of the ashes of the Empire. The Ackley, at the request of Rivik, the last leader of the Archetypes before Za’s bloody takeover, and a sympathiser of the Rebellion, had been sent there to sort this rogue out. 

Kat really wanted to tell the wolfman this, but it would have to wait until they were out of there, as you never knew who might be listening in on their conversation. That was why Riv Shiel had neglected to mention his intention of going to Kat’s “friends” if his escape attempt had been successful, for it was best to let their presence remain an unknown to their captors.


	9. Chapter 9

Azet studied the lightsabre that had been taken from the blonde haired human female residing now in the detention block with the wolfman. It had a familiar look to the design of its handle, but had been made for a far smaller hand than the one in her memory. She activated it and a green blade snap-hissed into existence and a name came to her.

Shirak, or otherwise known as Flik Sivrak, Raqak’s son and Mizet’s lost heir. Brother to the lupa Lyet Dek that Kopek had dispatched years before. Rumours had permeated through out the years of Shirak’s continued existence, but this was the first time that she had received definite proof of that. A flash of excitement passed through her at the thought of his survival, but she quickly quashed that out of existence. His survival was a threat to her, and Za, no matter what had passed between them when they had been Jedi padawans.

The beep of an incoming transmission on the holonet transceiver caught her attention and she deactivated the lightsabre to see Za’s holo image hovering before her in the private room separated from the command centre.

“Have you learnt anything of value?” he asked.

The dark Jedi’s ears flattened back against her skull, angry that she had been disturbed, not in submissive reverence. “Nothing definite as yet, Za. All we have been able to determine is that the wolfman in our confinement is not Lak Sivrak. It is a lowly former scoutship pilot called Riv Shiel. On a more positive note, however, the human female we’ve captured with him happens to be Kaitlin Ros, a former petty criminal active on Ord Mantell and is one of Flik Sivrak’s whelps, though not literally of course.”

“Sivrak? You’ve found him?”

“Not yet, though I have evidence that Shirak is indeed, still alive, even after all this time,” Azet replied. “She had a lightsabre on her and the design is similar to that he wielded.”

“So this Flik Sivrak is Shirak, as we suspected? And you told me you’d made no developments.”

Azet flashed him her teeth. “Don’t get excited. I don’t even know if he’s on Ord Mantell. Knowing that he is alive after all this time and finding him are two different banthas entirely.”

“What about the prisoners? Have they revealed anything?”

“Ever since putting them in the same cell together all they have talked about are Shiel’s family and how he murdered the officer responsible for their deaths. I had to stop the fools from killing Shiel so that we could get information out of him.”

“Humans,” Za snarled. “All they see when they look upon our kind are beasts – they can’t stop themselves from treating us so.”

“Quite true, my heart – but in that lies their weakness.”

“The technique you used on Lakah Vete was effective, even if it did anger Kopek - ”

“Your half-brother was weak, Za. That is why he now languishes in the humans’ prison. Do not mention him to me again,” Azet cut him off sharply. “I cannot use the technique I used on Lakah Vete because I would reveal my presence to Sivrak if I did so, and if he is indeed here. It is far too early for that yet and I doubt that Shiel knows anything worth pulling from his mind anyway. Ros, I want to keep her intact because she will be bait for my trap.”

“So apart from this lightsabre, you’ve found no trace of his trail yet?”

“No. That is what I’m having difficulty unearthing. If he is here, he is well hidden from me, as I’ve not felt his presence. His furless-ape apprentice has not given any indication that he is here.”

“If this Shiel is useless, why not dispose of him?”

“Oh, he is far from useless, Za. You have no knowledge of the human heart, even if it black towards us much of the time. Ros seems to have romantic stirring for the wolfman he hauled in with her. That has been made clear to me from my observing them together. The humans are good at treating each other as badly as they treat us, it seems. Perhaps she will be more forthcoming with information if he was threatened. Ah, I almost wish your fool half-brother wasn’t doing time on Kessel – he’d be really useful right about now.”

“That’s what happens when he lets himself get distracted by a lupa’s pheromones,” Za said. “If you find that Shirak’s there, how will you trap him?”

“I have my ways, heart, those that only a Jedi would know.”


	10. Chapter 10

Sleep had claimed both Kat and Riv. Kat had remarked on how cold it was in the cell and they had fallen asleep next to each other so that they could share body heat. Riv had draped his arm over her, not only in just an attempt to protect her from the chill, but also as a means of to drive away the images of his slaughtered family from his mind. The trembling of his limbs, the creasing of his muzzle, the twitching of his ears along with the growls and whimpers that emanated from his throat indicated how unsuccessful he’d been as those images cascaded over and over through his mind as real events evolved into nightmares if there had been anyone to witness them.

His arm tightened around her and Kat began the journey to full wakefulness. Kat woke completely at the sound of footsteps disturbing her fogged mind. In spite of the cold, she disentangled herself from Riv’s embrace. The earlier head ache and nausea had faded away, and that at least was something she was grateful for. 

When the footsteps stopped outside the door to their prison, Kat concluded that they had come to interrogate her now. She picked herself up from the floor and narrowed her eyes to protect them against the blinding light that was to come when they opened the door. 

The door slid open as it had before and six guards entered this time, far more than Kat thought needed to deal with her alone. She thought that maybe they were going to be moved, but she knew better than to voice her enquiry, as it would just give them an excuse to turn on her.

Two of the guards, the same ones that had brutally dumped Riv into the cell before, headed in Kat’s direction while the other four headed towards the sleeping wolfman. They carried batons and began kicking and hitting the prone form of the sleeping wolfman to rouse him. 

Kat had seen enough of this, and despite her determination not to draw attention to herself, couldn’t bear to just stand by and do nothing to help her companion. Kat tried to pull away from her guards to help him. “Hey stop that! Don’t you think you’ve hurt him enough?” she shouted at them.

She received an elbow to her abdomen from on of her guards for her insolence. “Shut yer gob, alien-lover,” he pushed his face into hers after she’d doubled over. “If we had the time, we’d show you what it’s like to have a real man, instead of just this stinking animal.” He kicked her in the small of her back. “On yer feet, Reb scum.”

His companion hauled her roughly to her feet. Once on her feet again, she spat in the first guard’s face and received a slap to hers for her trouble. “A fighter. I like those. It’s unfortunate we don’t have the time to teach you any manners, though. I’d rather enjoy that.”

A thunderous growl erupted from Riv’s throat. All the guards turned their attention to him. “Hurt her again, and I’ll tear the throat out belonging to every guard in this room.”

The threat would have been genuine, had he not already been beaten and injured. A thought of kneeing the first guard in the groin and fleeing crossed Kat’s mind, but the strain in the wolfman’s voice made her think better of it. She was unwilling to leave him behind, even if he had been willing to do that if their places had been switched.

Kat caught his gaze as the two guards hauled her out of the cell. In those eyes, she saw a tenderness she’d never seen before, not even in her father’s when she’d been a little girl. She hoped that they would both get the chance to explore that, but first they’d have to get out of the mess they were in. It didn’t occur to her that the root cause might have been the volatile emotions the wolfman had been experiencing lately brought on by the loss of his family, though she probably should have considered it. Only the joy at finding that he could return those earlier feelings she felt filled her mind at that moment, and even the memory of his seemingly savage revenge had faded from her memory.

But the guards had not forgotten what he’d done to their late boss, neither could they forgive the “beast” in their midst his earlier actions and until they reached their destination, they took every opportunity they had to remind him of that.


	11. Chapter 11

Once they’d stepped into the interrogation room, Kat could well imagine the countless unfortunate aliens, Jedi and suspected Rebel conspirators who had been tortured there. Their pain and fear hung around the place like the stench of blood and death in a slaughterhouse, and Kat was more sensitive to it than others because of her connection to the Force. 

The guards took her to a chair that reminded her of the dentist chair she’d sat in as a child on Chandrilla when she went for check-ups, hoping that they wouldn’t find any tooth they had to drill for a filling, or to take out. That had been nasty enough, but this had no sense of any thing to do with medical treatment about it, only persecution.

Her guards forced her to sit down in it and then clapped restraints around her wrists, ankles, middle, thighs and neck, making sure that all but the last were tighter than they needed to be so that they’d bite into her flesh and cause superficial cuts.

Riv, they bound face down to a rack against the wall in front of her. For the first time, she got a good look at the mess they’d made of his back and it wasn’t pretty. After making them secure, the guards made their exit. Kat and Riv where then made to stew while they waited for their interrogator to arrive. They waited for such a long period that Kat wondered if their interrogator was ever going to show up, that they’d just been taken there to make them paranoid, until at last a dark cloaked figure entered, followed by a brutish looking thug of a wolfman.

The wolfman had been surprising enough, but Kat was more astounded to discover the cloaked figure was a female Shistavanen when she pulled down the cowl of her hood. There was a dark aura of what Kaitlin could only describe as evilness surrounding her, and she knew without a doubt that she was looking upon the Sith that Rivik had mentioned was supposed to be working with the rogue, Za.

It was Riv who broke the silence first. “How could you do it, lupa? Why did you turn against your own kind?” His use of the word lupa lacked the affectionate way he’d used it to address Kaitlin. It was full of hate.

“Silence, cur. The only reason you’re involved in this is that those brainless, naked apes fouled up their investigation of your identity. Still, you may be some use to me,” she inclined her head to the brute who’d entered with her and he lashed out at Riv with the baton he carried. To his credit, Riv didn’t even flinch. Kat had to stop herself from grinning at the racial slur that came out of the Sith’s mouth. It was almost refreshing to hear something like that directed at humans for a change, instead of humans calling an alien, an “animal.” Riv being hit drained out any humour she might have found in the situation, though.

“I am Azet. I’m sure by now that Rivik and your Master have told you about me.”

Kat didn’t reply. Why should she reveal anything to the Sith. Azet closed her eyes and nodded to the brute again. Realisation came to Kat as Riv was struck again.

“I see you understand the game. So, puny human, where is Flik Sivrak?” Azet’s next question came at her. Though she didn’t want to see Riv hurt, she couldn’t betray Flik and Shiba.

“Who? I don’t know anyone by that name.”

Kat closed her eyes so that she didn’t have to witness Riv receiving the next blow, but that didn’t cut her off from the guilt of knowing she’d caused him to get hurt.

“You seemed to know his brother. You mentioned him when you resisted arrest in the cantina.”

At least she couldn’t lie this time. “I didn’t know him, at least not that well. I just met him shortly before he died at Endor. I didn’t even know Lak Sivrak had a brother.”

Azet reached inside her cloak and produced a lightsabre, Kat’s lightsabre, the one that Flik had helped her to create. Azet activated it to reveal the green blade. In the background, the brute of a wolfman beat Riv again.

“This lightsabre tells me different, human. Every time you are unco-operative, your wolfman lover will get hurt, every time you lie to me, he will be hurt. He’s been through so much pain already – how much longer do you think he will hold out before he perishes? I doubt you want that.”

“Don’t listen to her, little lupa. Any physical pain they inflict is nothing compared to my Kiyah’s loss. They can’t hurt me.”

Azet stepped up to Riv and stroked his head. Jealousy stabbed through Kat as she whispered into Riv’s ear. “Brave words, cur, and I believe that you would endure any pain inflicted upon you, but it’s dependant on how much pain your lover can endure seeing inflicted upon you.”

She inclined her head to the brute again. “Don’t stop until I give the word.” Azet walked towards Kaitlin’s chair and stopped at her side. She laid a clawed hand on her shoulder and bent down until her head was line with Kat’s. “Only you can stop his suffering, weak one. What will it be?”

Kat remained silent as the brute reigned down blows on Riv’s back.

“Be quick about your decision, human. He doesn’t have to die, but it will be on your head if he does.”

Kat continued her silence, but tears started to well in her eyes, as the beating carried on. She could see that Riv was starting to weaken. 

“All you have to do to stop this is tell me where your Master is.”

Kat turned her head to look at her until she looked directly into the Sith’s evil yellow lupine eyes. They lacked the wisdom and compassion that had been so prevalent in Flik’s eyes, they lacked the tenderness and bravery she’d seen in Riv’s, the innocence she’d seen so often in Zak’s were absent. They were the eyes of a killer without remorse, and Kat wondered for a moment what had happened to Azet to remove those qualities from hers. She swallowed to combat the tightness in her throat that would hinder her speech.

“We will die. Stop this, please,” Kat said, trying to make her words clear, but they only just made it past her throat.

“That will be his fate if you continue to refuse to co-operate and lie. If you want it to stop, all you have to do is tell me where your Master, Flik Sivrak, is.”

Kaitlin considered her response. Riv had drifted into unconsciousness. Should she betray Flik and Shiba? She couldn’t bear never to look in Riv’s eyes again. Besides, Flik would probably be able to take care of himself. Forgive me, Master. 

“He’s here, on Ord Mantell,” Kat swallowed, hoping that she had done the right thing.

“Thank you for your co-operation, human. Leave him and tell those guards to take them back to their cell. We have the information we need.”


	12. Chapter 12

Flik brought the swoop to a standstill, cut the engines and looked over his shoulder at Shiba.

“It shouldn’t be far from here,” Flik said. “The place where the Imps picked Kat up is down that street just around the corner.”

“Okay,” Shiba said, dismounting the swoop. “I’m ready for this.”

Flik shut down the swoop’s navigation system; the one linked to the Warrior and tossed her the electronic key. Shiba caught it without fumbling. Flik started moving off in the direction he’d indicated.

“The area may still be crawling with Imps, so I want you to stay here.”

Shiba caught his arm, forcing him to stop in his tracks and turned to face her. 

“Not likely, Sivrak. That’s exactly the reason you need me to go with you. I don’t want a repeat of what happened the last time we were on Nar Shaddaa.”

Flik regarded her for a moment or two and scratched his chin. Of course, if he got captured, that would leave Shiba on her own to spring him and Kat out, unless she contacted the rest of the Ackley for help, but they were occupied with their own mission, with the Rebel Alliance trying to prevent an invasion by an alien reptilian species at Bakura. They were on their own.

“Point taken,” Flik replied. “Watch my back.”

Shiba released her grip on Flik’s arm and followed close behind him. They used the darkness to cloak them, as they got closer to the scene of Kat’s capture. They soon recognised the spot where the disturbance had taken place, as Riv Shiel’s home was a burnt out ruin. Flik stopped and crouched down beside a length of overgrown hedges, gesturing Shiba to do the same. He’d caught the scent of humans in Stormtrooper armour and waited until the two Stormtroopers given the task of guarding the scene to keep the curious at bay, came into view. The original perpetrators seemed to be long gone.

“Only two there,” Flik told Shiba, trying to keep his voice low so they wouldn’t be detected. “I’ll circle round, you take them from the front. I want them alive; they might know something.”

“Careful,” Shiba mouthed, quietly.

Flik headed off, a moving shadow in the night. Shiba watched him until his dark mass had melted into the darkness. Then she turned her attention back to the Stormtroopers. She wondered if she should try to creep closer, or wait until Flik began his attack, as she didn’t want to leave it so late that she would have trouble getting to him in time if something unforeseen happened, but neither did she want to alert them to the forthcoming attack prematurely. So she sat and waited, and despised the fact that she’d decided to wait.


	13. Chapter 13

After leaving Shiba, Flik circled around to the back of the row of buildings containing the dwelling that had once belonged to the Shistavanen picked up with Kat. His dark fur and his natural ability to stalk helped him to blend into the dark. Excitement caused by the act of hunting began to rise within him, which he pushed back down to control his instinctive impatience and concentrated on avoiding any patches of light to conceal his movement that laid between him and his goal.

He ducked down the narrow pathway that separated one row of houses and the next. There was no garden to speak back here; just the dreary filth that came with low-grade housing that was commonplace in the sprawl of most cities in the galaxy. Strange, noxious smells assaulted his nose and obscured his ability to scent any would-be onlookers. There was no way of telling if he’d been seen from any of the darkened windows, but considering the neighbourhood, he took comfort in the fact that if anyone had clocked him, they would mind their own business as many inhabitants of slums such as this wouldn’t want to draw attention to themselves. It was more than likely that any of its residents would have cleared out of the area if they possessed any sense of self-preservation during or after the recent disturbance, but caution was still best maintained in the circumstances.

He mentally ticked off the buildings as he past them, so that he knew when he came to the right house. All of the houses along this stretch and for several blocks around were single storey, that is, they had no upstairs floor, though there were steps he noticed going up to the flat roof, that in some ways made up for the lack of gardens.

Flik began to understand how a thief like Kat Ros had found their trade so easy in Ord Mantell, except for the fact that anyone who’d had anything worth stealing would have gotten out of these shacks along time ago. 

It was relatively easy for him to scramble up the stairs, but his profile would still be too conspicuous unless he shuffled along the rooftop on his belly, so he made sure he crawled along when he got to the top of the stairs.

Once he’d reached the front of the building, he discovered that the Stormtroopers were still hanging around there. At the sight of his intended prey, Flik had to repress his initial urge to attack then. Common sense restored, Flik concluded that he needed to give Shiba the opportunity to get into a better position. 

He recalled seeing or more accurately, scenting an overflowing garbage dumpster at the back of the house next to Riv Shiel’s, and an idea formed in his mind. Concentrating hard, Flik was rewarded with the clattering sound made by the dumpster as it tipped over. 

He opened eyes he’d not realised he’d closed and saw the white clad Stormtroopers leave their post to investigate. 

Come on, Shib, his thoughts urged her.

A satisfied grin creased his muzzle as he saw Shiba’s silhouette cross the open ground and hunker down on the other side of the wall.

He gave the predatory instincts he’d been suppressing free reign as he waited for the Stormtrooper’s return.


	14. Chapter 14

It would have been a hell of a lot simpler, she concluded, if they didn’t have to take them alive, but as they had so little to go on to begin with, any info they could obtain would be most welcome.

Then she was in luck, as both of the Stormtroopers, seeing that nothing was amiss, (oh just how wrong they were), moved off to inspect another part of the grounds. Moving swiftly, silently and keeping low, Shiba used the shadows to cross the distance between the hedge and the pile of blocks that had once made up the wall surrounding Riv Shiel’s home. She crouched in the shadows there, letting her breathing and pounding heart come back down to normal levels. She’d gotten back undercover just in time, as she heard the Stormtroopers come back around to the front.

She used that time of inactivity to inaudibly draw her blaster and braced herself to be ready for the time when Flik began his attack. It seemed like an age and Shiba began to worry that Flik had miscalculated the numbers of Stormtroopers and got himself killed, or captured, when a commotion exploded on the opposite side of the wall.

Shiba reacted in an instant and vaulted over the ruins of the wall. Flik, she saw had wrestled one of the troopers to the ground and was delivering him a blow to his now un-helmeted head that knocked him out. Shiba’s momentum had knocked the second trooper to the floor and she was now wrestling with him to get his helmet off. Breathing heavily, Flik trained his blaster on the struggling trooper and he stopped all resistance and allowed Shiba to remove his helmet. Shiba opened her med kit and took out a syringe which she used to pump the downed trooper full of a drug that would render him unconscious and then she moved on to the one Flik had knocked out, injecting him as insurance against him coming round.

“How long will it take for that stuff to wear off?”

“Three, four hours. It’s the stuff I use on patients when they require a complicated operation.”

The wolfman grinned. “Just how did you know we needed it?”

Shiba shrugged her shoulders. “I didn’t, but you never know when something like that might come in useful.”

“I’m gonna take a look around,” Flik said, inclining his head towards the ruined building. “Will you be okay dealing with these clowns?” 

“They’ll be no trouble,” Shiba reassured him. “Just be careful when you’re poking around in there, okay? It doesn’t look that stable.”

He bent down to kiss her. “I’ll be fine, Shib.”

When Flik returned from the wreckage of the building, Shiba had finished trussing up the two Stormtroopers. She looked at him, catching the haunted look to his face. He sank down on the ruined wall and Shiba parked herself beside him.

“Did you find anything?” Shiba asked.

“Yes and no. The smoke from the fire has taken away any sign of Kat’s scent, but I did find these.”

He held out Kat’s lightsabre, the electronic key and a three dimensional pyramid. Shiba took the key from him first. “She was in there, as this belongs to the vehicle we hired. She must have lost it when they captured her.”

“That’s my conclusion, too. It’s all scorched, but her lightsabre isn’t – it was planted after the fire.”

“I get the key and the lightsabre, but what’s that?” Shiba asked, pointing at the pyramid.

“It’s a holocron,” the wolfman replied.

“You mean like the thing you have?”

“Yes and no,” Flik replied. “I’ll explain later.”

“You found something else in there, didn’t you?”

Flik nodded silently. He couldn’t give voice to what he had seen.

“Dam it, Flik. Tell me what you saw! Kat’s not dead in there, is she?” Shiba bounced up off the wall and circled around to face him directly. Still Flik remained silent.

“Tell me what else you saw in there, Sivrak!” she said, placing her hands on his shoulders. “What did you see?”

“Remains,” was Flik’s choked reply. “It was like finding Auoura all over again.” He explained to her about finding Riv Shiel’s family.

“I think it’s time we left this place,” Flik said, pushing himself up off the wall. Shiba draped an arm around him, understanding first hand what he’d just gone through. A similar experience had happened to her recently, when she discovered that the Empire had been building a new Death Star. In spite of all the times he’d tried to hide or control his emotions in the light of him being Jedi, or his appearance of seemingly invulnerability, the wolfman could still be affected by things such as that. If he weren’t, then he’d be no different to Palpatine himself.

“What about these guys?” Shiba asked, gesturing towards the unconscious Stormtrooper guards. 

“Leave them. We don’t need them anymore. I want you to recover those remains, instead, just in case our friend who was taken with Kat is still alive. He deserves the chance to mourn them properly. After that, we go back to the Warrior and see if we can’t sort this mess out.”


	15. Chapter 15

“So, you going to tell me what this is about?” Shiba asked, pointing at the holocron on the table in the galley. Miraculously, Shiba had been able to restock their hot chocolate supplies and she figured that now was the time to bring it up again. They had finished working with the remains, having stored them in the preservation compartments they’d used during their time as bounty hunters. It seemed strange that they were now being used to help someone, rather than being used for storing bounties. Though neither of them really felt like eating, Shiba had retrieved two packets of those unappealing survival rations after she’d finished her work. As she’d been dealing with that, Flik had moved the Warrior from the spaceport. 

“It’s clear to me that the holocron and the lightsabre were left deliberately for me to find,” Flik said, sitting opposite her.

“I’d pretty much worked that out for myself, Flik. What I meant was, what could it contain?”

“Good question. You already know that the Jedi used holocrons as teaching devices, as you’ve seen from the one I possess.”

“Yes, but you’re going to tell me there’s a different purpose to this one, aren’t you?” Shiba asked, picking at the congealing mess that was her survival ration. Her stomach lurched as it brought unwanted memories to her mind, which she forced herself to take no notice of. You had to have a strong stomach to be a doctor, after all.

“That’s correct,” Flik said, staring at his meal in the same way one would look at sludge on one’s shoes. He longed for real food…

“They were also used to carry messages between one Jedi and another. The Sith also used them.”

“Makes sense, I guess, but there’s one thing I don’t understand – I can see why they would use them as training devices, but why go through the trouble of using them to send messages when they could just as easily use a holocube. What’s the difference between one of these holocrons and a normal holocube and how can you tell a Jedi holocron from that of a Sith?”

“A holocron can only be activated by a Force-user, that’s why they are used instead of a normal holocube.”

“We can’t have smugglers and other assorted scum seeing what’s on them, I figure,” Shiba said, shovelling a mouthful of tasteless protein into her mouth.

A smile crossed Flik’s face. “Keeps politicians from prying into business that don’t concern them, either. Though if the Jedi had been on the ball more during the Clone Wars, it would have given them a better advantage.”

“There’s not much use for regret now, Flik. You were about to tell me how to tell a Jedi and Sith holocron apart.”

“The difference between them is usually the shape. A Jedi holocron is usually a cube, a sphere or a flat square or circle. A Sith holocron tends to be a pyramid, as we see here. The script you see is a language used on the Sith planet, Korriban.”

Shiba put her fork to one side and picked up the holocron so that she could have a better look at it. They were incomprehensible pictograms, or hieroglyphics. Even she could sense a kind of power radiating from them, but it also had the aura of malice around them, something she’d never thought was possible to pick up from something that was just a script, a feeling that her logical, scientific mind would have rejected until that moment. She set it back down on the table, as she couldn’t bear to handle it any longer.

“You feel its coldness, don’t you?” Flik asked her.

“It might sound silly, but just handling it fills me with dread. I’d much rather deal with what we have stored back in the cargo bay than look at that thing.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but it certainly runs cold fingers down your spine.”

“Do you know what it says?”

Flik shook his lupine head and Shiba caught a hint of relief in his voice when he replied. “No. Though my Master Naja taught me enough about the Sith to recognise their symbols and where they come from, he forbade me to learn their meanings as he thought knowledge of them would corrupt me. Sometimes, over the years, I wonder if even being able to recognise them has been enough to do that.”

“I’ve always taken the view that all knowledge is neutral and it’s how you apply it that makes it good or bad.”

“That maybe true, for most things, Shiba, but there is some knowledge that should never be known. If the science of the Death Star’s superlaser hadn’t been discovered, then Alderaan would not have been destroyed.”

“I see your point, Flik. Do you think our mystery Shistavanen, the one picked up with Kat, could be our Sith?”

“No,” Flik said. “Though I have an inkling of who it might be. During my time as a padawan and as a Knight, there was three other Shistavanen Jedi in the Order. One was my own father, killed by Vader. The second was another male Shistavanen, but he was killed in the Clone Wars. I don’t recall his name, however. The final one was a lupa, well, she wasn’t even that. Her name was Azet. I’d always thought that she’d died during the Purge.”

“So you think that it’s this Azet?”

“From what Rivik spoke to me about just before the Battle at Endor, it’s a possibility.”

“There’s only one way to find out. Activate the holocron.”

“You’re right. Let’s find out what this whole mess is about,” Flik said, reaching forwards to grasp the holocron in his hand. He closed his eyes, concentrated for a second or two and the holocron flared to life. The holocron opened up like a flower head, its triangular sides lying perpendicular to the top of the table.

He opened his eyes to see an ethereal female Shistavanen, around eight years his junior, staring back at him. He let out a gasp as he recognised her as the padawan he’d saved at the arena on Geonosis, and he wondered for the first time since that day if he had acted right. But that question was mote now, merely academic, as though he’d pretty much liked to, the past events could never be changed.

“Greetings, Shirak, the deserter. You should know who I am, but if you don’t recall, I’ll remind you – I am Azet. You have no idea the amount of trouble I’ve been through to track you down – Lyet, your sister, as already been dealt with, though your niece and nephew gave me the slip. I hear that there is no need for me to track down Lak, as he eliminated himself for me, at Endor. You dealt with your son with your own hand, I hear, but that sadly, won’t save you. By now you’ve probably already guessed that I hold your whelp of a Jedi. If you wish to see her again, you will come to the co-ordinates written on the side of this holocron. Your time limit is 14 days. Fruitful hunting, Jedi.”

Her image disappeared back into the holocron as its sides closed up.

“That’s just great – she gives you co-ordinates in a language you can’t decipher.”

“She’s just messing with us, that’s all. Perhaps Lobo will be able to decode them, as he did belong to my father. Just because Jedi don’t know it’s meaning - ”

“I get the picture, Flik, but what if Lobo has nothing of this in his files?”

Flik looked at her, his ears lying flat against his skull. “Then we have a problem.”

“I’m whacked. We didn’t get much sleep last night. I’m going to get some rest.”

“Best idea you’ve had all day, Shib.”


	16. Chapter 16

Flik had hoped that by doing as Shiba’d suggested, and attempting to get some sleep, that the conundrum posed by the hieroglyphs on the Sith holocron would solve itself once he’d gained a fresh perspective on it, but all it kept doing was nagging at his mind. Thoughts whizzed around inside his head like contestants in a never-ending pod race. Thoughts that consisted of inadequacy at not having the knowledge to decipher them and guilt that he had been partly responsible for the monster that Azet had become.

He glanced across at Shiba, asleep and peaceful after their latest intimate encounter, but even that had failed to drive away the frustration of being helpless because of knowledge he didn’t possess, knowledge that he had refused to learn to save himself, but what seemed to condemn Kaitlin Ros. He wondered if he’d taken the wrong course of action by taking her away from her family. 

Unwilling to disturb Shiba with his restlessness, Flik finally abandoned the fruitless quest for sleep and slipped quietly out of bed. Not knowing why, as only he and Shiba were on board the ship but feeling compelled to do anyway, he put on the pair of black trousers that laid in a discarded pile on the deck at the foot of their bed. 

He then headed for the galley, intending to collect the Sith holocron and taking it up to the cockpit to see if Lobo could translate those Sith symbols. However, upon entering the galley, he sensed a visitor, if that was what you could call the ghostly form sat on the plush bench waiting for him.

“I see things don’t change much,” the ghost said, gesturing towards Shiba’s top draped on the galley table. His first impression was that his Master Naja had come, as the long-dead Jedi Master had done over the years, but as Flik moved deeper into the galley, he found that his initial attempt at identify his visitor had been incorrect. Flik didn’t know whether to smile or not as he recognised his visitor.

“Obi-Wan?” he asked, cautiously.

“You don’t hide your disappointment well, do you, Jedi Sivrak? About as well as your vices, I think.”

“Shiba’s my wife,” Flik said, in his defence. “Auoura died. Your failure saw to that.”

If Obi-Wan had come to debate Jedi lore with him, Flik was going to make it clear that it was not welcome. It was Palpatine’s manipulation, not Anakin’s love for Padme that had caused the fall of the Jedi. 

Among the Jedi, there had been a faction that wanted the no-marriage statute to be rescinded for Knights and Masters. It was the reason why Flik himself had left the Order, though in his heart, he never stopped being a Jedi. Anakin, he was sure, would never have had gone down the path of darkness if he’d not had to keep his relationship with Padme a secret. 

Deceiving the Order had been the bane of existence for his father, Raqak, too. Flik had come to the conclusion that what placed a Jedi on the path to the Darkside had little to do with the romantic relationship with a member of the opposite sex, or worry for any children produced, it was the deceit they had to employ to conceal their relationship and conflict with unnecessary values imposed upon them that turned a Jedi.

“That was uncalled for, wasn’t it?” Obi-Wan replied. “I’m here to deliver a message.”

“What message?” Flik asked. And why couldn’t Naja or my father have come instead, but he kept that part to himself.

“Naja and your father wanted to bring this message - ,” Obi-Wan’s words echoed Flik’s thoughts. “ – but eventually we all have to move on. Anakin was too embarrassed, and besides, he doubted you would believe him, and Yoda, having been involved in the galaxy’s events for 900 years, wanted to move on as soon as he could. So you’re left with me, I’m afraid.”

So I’m finally alone, he thought. He pushed that thought away to dwell on later. 

“I take it your visit has something to do with this?” Flik observed, lifting the holocron with the Force and letting it float there, between them. Displays of arrogance had seemed to be Kenobi’s forte when he’d been Flik’s age, so because of that and his comments about Shiba, Flik decided to repay him by carrying out a little arrogant display of his own. He regretted it almost as soon as he carried out the gesture; arrogance might have been apart of Obi-Wan in the days of the Old Republic, but the destruction of the Jedi Order had mellowed him some what, and death even more so.

“Your learner is being held at an Imperial base here on Ord Mantell,” Obi-Wan replied. “It’s the only one here, so your ship’s AI should be able to pin point its location.”

Flik’s ears flattened back against his skull, and he closed his eyes for a moment as he inclined his head towards the wraith. He found himself saying these next words, even though they’d hardly ever agreed on anything when they had been contemporaries. “Thank you, old friend.”

The sound of boots on metal came from the corridor, followed by; “Who are you talking to?”

Flik turned his head to find Shiba standing there in the doorway, dressed in black trousers and one of Flik’s t-shirts that was far too large for her, but seemed to fit her much better than it had ever fitted him. 

“I was just talking to - ” Flik turned his head to the spot where Obi-Wan’s wraith had been sat a moment before but was now an empty space. “ – no one.”

Shiba giggled at his discomposure. “Want me to make you some hot chocolate? Then you can tell me all about it.”

Flik nodded. “I think we’ve just made a break through, Shiba,” he grinned. Then he thought at the shade of Obi-Wan, arrogant twit! No change there, I see. Vices indeed! Only jealousy for the fact that you never got the girl…


	17. Chapter 17

Kaitlin let out a sigh of relief as Riv finally regained consciousness. 

“I thought you’d never wake,” she said, running her fingers through the thick, coarse fur of Riv Shiel’s mane. All Shistavanens had them, but they were particularly thick on males, a defence mechanism against sharp fangs during fights for dominance, though that was from the time when their species had a hunter/gather culture. The wolfman blinked once or twice to clear the fog that misted his vision before revealing his fangs in a slight smile.

“That was rough. If I ever get that cowardly cur in a fair fight, he’ll be sorry,” Riv growled, his voice was hoarse because he’d not spoken for a long time, and his throat was as dry as the bones of the Krayt Dragon skeleton on Tattoine. He coughed to clear his throat, but the dryness still remained.

“Where do you hurt? You don’t have broken bones, I checked as soon as we were brought back here, but I guess that there’s still got to be a fair amount of bruising,” Kat replied. She was glad now of the instruction Shiba had given her in basic field medicine, even if she was far from being an expert in it.

“Almost everywhere,” Riv answered, wincing as he stretched out his stiff muscles, and wishing he hadn’t. “How long have I been out?”

“I don’t know for certain,” Kaitlin absent-mindedly stroked the softer, shorter fur of his head; Riv closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation. “The passage of time seems to have little meaning here, but if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say at least a day, three at the most.”

“Great,” Riv growled low in his throat, and then his stomach rumbled in answer. “I’m starving. Any chance of food, you think?”

“Nothing. No one’s been, not even with water, which is bad anyway, but with the way you’ve been treated, even more so, as you’ll need it more than I.”

Riv’s disappointment at the lack of food melted away as Kaitlin continued to stroke his head. After a while, he broke the silence. “What did they want, little lupa? All I remember was that mongrel - ”

“She wanted to know if my friend was here,” Kat cut him off. She didn’t want to be reminded of what’d been done to him.

“You didn’t tell her, did you?” Riv asked, a note of disproval in his voice.

“I had no choice, Riv. They would have killed you if I’d not told her Flik was here.”

“This is bad,” Riv’s ears pricked up to indicate aggression or anger.

“It could be worse. You could be dead,” Kat reminded him.

Riv smiled grimly, knowing that she was correct. “I wouldn’t want to leave you here alone, little lupa, if I can prevent it.”

A panel in the door near the bottom slid open and two meals were pushed through, complete with drinks. Riv Shiel eased himself up off the floor while Kat retrieved them. The meals were of different sizes and Kat gave him the larger one. 

“I guess they haven’t forgotten us, after all,” Kat said.

“Looks that way,” Riv replied, pealing back the lid of his meal and sniffed at it. “Yuck, simulated protein. Haven’t these people heard of real food?”

“We’re prisoners, what do you think they’re going to give us?” Kat replied.

Hunger overcame disgust and Riv began to eat. He left the drink until last, and in spite of differences in size, they both finished the meal, if it could be called that, at the same time. 

Smiling at her, Riv said, “You know, the first thing I’m gonna do when we get out of here is take you to have some real food.”

“Thanks,” Kat said, feeling herself blush as she returned his smile. Not meeting his eyes, she asked him, “Where don’t you hurt?”

“Here,” he pointed to his lips.

“I know it’s too soon, but, - ” Kaitlin broke off and kissed him before she lost her nerve.

When she pulled away from him to regain her breath, Riv grinned at her. “We could die here,” he returned her kiss.

“They could be watching,” Kat protested.

“Who cares?” was Riv’s reply.


	18. Chapter 18

“So this is the place?” Shiba asked, glancing to her right at the wolfman crouched beside her.

“These are the co-ordinates Lobo gave me,” Flik replied. 

Shiba rested her elbows on the sandstone boulder they were sat behind and peered through the macro-binoculars at the imposing grey fortress-like building below them. With the Imperial facility located in an area where the topography consisted of windswept cliffs and steep valleys formed by ancient glaciers melted long ago, it had taken all afternoon getting up here, and now they waited for dusk to descend while the afternoon turned to evening. It gave them a welcome rest, as well as providing them with an opportunity to get a feel of the place.

“Look’s pretty quiet,” Shiba said, suspiciously as she turned her back to the boulder. “Are you sure that our blue ghostie was right?”

Flik shrugged his shoulders as he settled down beside her. “Obi-Wan might have been an arrogant twit for much of the time, but he was usually right,” Flik replied. The word unfortunately he added to himself.

“So you’re going to trust him, it, whatever, this time?”

Flik scratched his chin thoughtfully. “It’s the only lead we have, Shib, however tenuous it might be. Besides - ” he continued with a grim smile. “ - I prefer creepy-crawling an Imp facility to sitting around, staring at glyphs on a holocron I don’t understand. There can’t be that many people who can translate those glyphs who haven’t been corrupted themselves. Korriban was declared off-limits during the Old Republic, not just because it being a Sith world, but also because most people who went there, researchers, anthropologists and such like, just disappeared. If they were Jedi or Force-sensitive -”

“I get the picture. They become Sith,” Shiba cut him off.

“Not quite accurate, but they did become corrupted by the Darkside. That must have been what happened to Azet.”

“Scenario one: she went there to study the Force because there were no Jedi left to continue her training, and it was the only place that had artefacts to do with the Force because virtually all of those belonging to Jedi were seized or destroyed by the Empire?” Shiba hazarded a guess at what could have created a being like Azet.

“It’s a possibility,” Flik admitted, though there was a dark uncertainty in his voice that suggested he doubted such a scenario.

“Scenario two: but on the other hand, she could just as easily have gone there seeking a way to bring down Palpatine and in the process, getting the urge to conquer the known galaxy herself, cos that’s what Sith do.”

“I’m hoping it’s the first one,” Flik said.

“Why?” Shiba asked, though she already suspected what his answer would be.

Flik turned to look at her, his muzzle creased in a snarl, though it was more directed at himself than at her, at the thing that he was reluctant to do. “Cos if it’s the second, there’s no way I can help her other than bring her death.”

“I think it’s time we found out.”

Shiba started to rise to her feet, but a heavy hand on her shoulder brought her back down. 

“For now our priority is to get Kat out of there,” Flik said, smoothing his fur backwards on his forehead, a gesture he had picked up by spending a lot of time among humans. “I have to be sure that there’s a way to help Azet before condemning her. I never gave that chance to Tek. I’m not going to make that judgement that quickly again.”

As he said that, images of Auoura lying dead on the floor, followed by the destruction caused by the rage that consumed him upon finding her that way flashed through his mind, and then his merciless cutting down of his own son with his lightsabre, his son’s dead body lying before him…

Was he any better than the Sith for what he’d done then and what he’d done after?

Shiba’s voice brought his awareness back to the present.

“There’s no telling how much damage she’s caused in over the twenty years she’s been active, Flik. Or how much she’ll do during the time it takes for you to make your decision on how to deal with her.”

“I know that,” he flashed his teeth at her in an irritated snarl.

“She also mentioned your sister, Lyet.”

Suppressing the impulse to snap at her again, Flik swallowed his anger and breathed in and out slowly several times before he answered.

“I know where this is going, but there’s no indication yet that she was behind Lyet’s death. I need to be sure about that. This isn’t like bounty hunting, Shib.”

“So what you’re saying is that a Jedi’s life, no matter what crime they’ve committed, has more value than a non-Jedi’s?”

“No, I’m not saying that at all, Shib. You seem to forget that the last time I dealt with a corrupted Jedi, I ended up killing my own son after he killed Auoura. If she is behind Lyet’s death, I have to make the decision on what to do with her without that affecting it, no matter how difficult it is not to act otherwise.”

Shiba had to concede the argument to him, this time, but she wasn’t going to admit that to him. “Well, we’re not going to be any good to Kat arguing Jedi ethics out there all night, are we?”

“Quite true,” Flik said. “But the right time’s not here yet. We have an hour before we can make our move.”

“Okay,” Shiba said.

The star that acted as Ord Mantell’s sun was well on its way to sinking beneath the western horizon, casting a deep red colour over that portion of the sky.

“If there’s one truth I’ve come to believe since leaving the Old Order, and that’s most people do the wrong thing for the right reason, and the right thing for the wrong reason. Sith are very good at manipulating people like that. In the last days of the Old Republic, Palpatine got the Jedi doing the right thing for the wrong reason, and the politicians doing the wrong thing for the right reason. He mixed everything up until no one knew the difference between the light and dark anymore, though it doesn’t necessarily always corrupt everyone, just causes confusion. 

“What happened the day Tek died was I carried out the wrong action for the wrong reason, Shib, and I paid for it by losing the only child I ever had. Some would say that it served justice, as I’d abandoned the Order to be with him and his mother, but all what happened that day was that a Sith succeeded in manipulating a Jedi destroy a being he held dear so the Sith would have one less rival.” 

“Flik, there’s no need for you to explain this to be, you should be telling this to Kat,” Shiba said, smiling at him.

“I know and I’m going to, when we get her back. I’m going to have to face her alone. For once, Shib, you won’t be able to come with me.”

Shiba nodded, understanding what he was getting at; if Shiba wasn’t there, Azet couldn’t use her against him.

They sat in silence for the rest of the hour, enjoying each other’s company as it might turn out to be the last they would ever spend together. Though they had faced it numerous times before, there seemed to be something more sinister about it this time, almost like the tension before the Battle at Endor, but darker. The feeling only seemed to grow as the sun sank below the western horizon and night descended like a blanket over the land. The stars offered the only light, but at that moment, they were more than just cosmic balls of fire and gas, they were pinpricks of hope that endured and shined brighter the darker the night became.

Flik took the macro-binoculars from her, turned on the night vision and looked upon a world of blurry green shadows. Though he had little need for them himself, it did allow him to see the world from Shiba’s perspective, when she placed the night vision goggles over her eyes, and they allowed him to zoom in and focus on distant objects far better than his natural eyes could.

He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Is it still clear?” Shiba asked.

“Yes,” Flik replied, putting the macro-binoculars down. His use of the monosyllable indicated that he was getting into predator mode, a demeanour she’d gotten used to over the years of working with him.

“You know this is way too easy, Flik.”

“Yeah, I know. Unsettling, isn’t it? She wants us in there.”

“A trap, you think?” Shiba asked, voicing her concern.

Flik’s fangs flashed light green in the verdant backdrop created by the night vision goggles. “What else could it be, Shib?” he replied, cockily. “Let’s go spring it.”

They rose to their feet. Flik, having a better sense of direction in the darkness, both due to his Force sensitivity and his better night vision, led the way. Moving quietly and carefully down the side of the valley, Flik guided her down with him, whispering soft warnings of rocks and uneven ground as they went. Shiba still bashed and scraped her limbs on rocks that seemed to do their best to block her way, and there was no doubt that without Flik’s presence at her side she would never have gotten down the valley side in the blackness without a twisted ankle at best, or a serious injury at worse. It seemed like an age to cover ground that would only have taken moments in daylight, and what made it worse was when at one point, she got her foot stuck between to large boulders. Flik’s calm presence put her at ease, and he managed to free her. 

She was also sure that at one point they’d waded through a knee-deep stream, for she heard the sound of rushing water and her boots squashed with every step she took. 

The end came unexpectedly when a wall of concrete reared up at them in the darkness. “We’re here,” was Flik’s comment.

Shiba glanced around, looking for security holocams, but found none.

“We’re gonna have to scout around for a way in. This is a solid wall,” Shiba whispered.

“No need,” Flik’s voice rumbled softly in the dark. He activated his lightsabre.

“Sure using that’s a good idea?” Shiba whispered hoarsely.

“Beats stumbling around in the darkness, at least on this occasion,” was his clipped reply.

Before she could object further, Flik had buried the green blade up to its hilt in the wall and began cutting an opening. It took the better part of five minutes to get through, but at last, success. He ducked through the hole first, checked to see if the way was clear, and beckoned Shiba to follow him when it was. 

It was soon clear for the reason why they’d met so little resistance, so far. Stormtroopers lay around the entire courtyard of the fortress. It was clear from their severed body parts that a lightsabre had been used to slaughter them.

“Still think your Sith is worth saving?” Shiba asked, curtly. 

“At least she didn’t use Force-lightening; I would have sensed it if she had,” Flik replied, passing her Kat’s lightsabre. “Detention block’s off that way. You go look for Kat. If her Shistavanen friend is around, free him too. I’m going after our Vader wannabe.”

Shiba nodded – she’d studied the map Lobo had been able to hack, and knew which direction to head in. But as she parted from Flik, she couldn’t shake the hollow, dread feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something just wasn’t right here and she needed no Force-sensitivity to tell her that.


	19. Chapter 19

“Someone’s coming – I hear their footsteps,” Kaitlin said, shyly. Though the tension had been broken between them now that each knew the other’s feelings were reciprocated, it was a new situation for her and she felt like she needed to back off for a while. That was difficult to do, considering that they were trapped in a cell together.

“Two. I scent them,” Riv replied.

Kat’s heart surged. “Human?” she asked, hoping instead that it would be Flik and Shiba, though she was sure if Flik was coming, she would have known by his presence. If company heading their way were human, then that would mean Azet wanted them again, and Kat didn’t think she’d be able to face that again so soon.

Riv’s lupine eyes appeared predatory in the darkness as he shook his furry head negatively. His canines flashed white in the darkness as he replied, “Our guard friends.”

Kat hung her head in disappointment. Riv sensed her flagging confidence turning to despair and knew he needed to restore it somehow.

“This may be our only chance to get out of here, little lupa,” Riv said, getting to his feet and taking up point by the door. “Be ready.”

Kaitlin shook off her initial disappointment as she too rose to her feet in the wolfman’s wake. How could she surrender herself to the void of helplessness when the wolfman was still willing to fight after all he’d lost recently? Now that neither of them were encumbered by the after effects of the sleeping gas, the Jedi-in-training and the wolfman just might be able to get themselves out of their predicament. She could tell that by the way Riv moved, however, that his injuries still caused him pain.

To date, Kat had never met anyone who displayed more resilience than Riv. Shistavanens, she surmised, were built to take a lot of punishment. 

The footsteps stopped outside their cell door and as Kat glanced at Riv for one last second of reassurance, she noticed him visibly tense up, ready to pounce on his unsuspecting prey. 

Waiting for the door to open seemed like an eternity for Riv, as he strained his senses, felt his heartbeat quicken, the residual pain was forgotten as adrenaline surged through his body, his breathing slow, deep and steady as he prepared for the coming fight.

Once the door slid open, Riv exploded out into the corridor like a loaded spring, tackling the first guard, who happened to be the one who’d mistreated Kat, to the floor. With his teeth clamping around the guard’s throat, Riv tore. 

As the life’s blood spilled out of the guard, Riv’s growing hunger almost became unbearable as the scent of blood and meat filled his nostrils. He needed to feed, to replenish the damage done to his body and satisfying that need was the only thing in his mind for a split second. 

Instinct could be a powerful master to override, and for a moment he not only looked like the savage beast the Empire most adamantly claimed his kind were, but he was on the verge of behaving like it. 

In the end, it was Kat’s presence that stopped him; she didn’t need to see that part of him. Almost reluctantly, but relived that he had overcome his basic nature, he pulled himself up and away from the guard, feeling slightly light-headed and detached as he did so. 

He closed his eyes for a moment.

“Are you alright?” 

Riv swallowed, the taste of blood in his mouth almost making him gag. He wiped the blood away from his mouth with a forearm. Riv opened his eyes and focused his gaze upon her. He felt his stomach give a load lurch of protest at not being satisfied.

“I will be,” Riv said, hoping that his words were true.

So much had happened in the past few days, the loss of his family, his incarceration, meeting Kaitlin. Was it inevitable that he would become slightly unhinged? Still, it was no excuse to almost giving into that predatory urge, not on a “fellow” sentient being, no matter how scummy he happened to be. To win the fight against bigots like that, you had to prove to them and yourself that you were morally superior, but not becoming elitist like them in the process.

After gaining control, he noticed that while he’d been otherwise occupied, that Kaitlin had dealt with the other guard, who lay dead at the hand of his own blaster that Kat had somehow managed to liberate from him, and he’d been so absorbed that he’d not even noticed. Glancing back at his handy work, bile rose in his throat, the ravenous hunger at least for the moment, had been chased away. Returning his gaze to Kaitlin, he reached across to her and encircled her arm with his clawed hand.

“It’s time we left this place, little lupa.”

“What about that?” Kat asked, pointing to the bodies.

Riv didn’t look at them again, didn’t want to. “We don’t have the time. Besides, how are we going to hide all this blood? Speed is our only ally now.”

That’s the price you pay, Riv mused ironically, when you let instinct take over your better sense.

“Point taken,” Kat said, looking up and down the corridor. “Which way do you think?” 

“That way,” he indicated the direction opposite to where the guards came from, which was down the corridor. “I assume, will take us deeper inside. We went that way to the interrogation room, remember?”

Kat nodded, but was cut off from making a reply, as at that moment, Azet’s Shistavanen minion came into view, from the direction Riv’d deduced they should go to get out. 

“Interrogation way?” Kat asked.

Riv nodded. “Go, little lupa. I’ll hold him here.”

Kaitlin, refusing to look back, sped off in the direction that led towards the interrogation room. After she disappeared from sight, Riv turned to face the other Shistavanen.

Recognition crossed Riv’s face and his ears shot up, his muzzle creased up to reveal his canines as he got a good look at him. A low, warning growl issued from his throat. He’d seen the other wolfman over a dozen times in holos shown to him by is mother, after the deaths of his father and older brother. The Shistavanen that stood before him was the Archetype responsible for killing them, and the reason Riv had not been able to identify him before was because of the fact he’d never met him in the flesh, so his scent would not be known to him, and he’d hardly been in a position to know him in the interrogation room.

Everything clicked into place in an instant; the Shistavanen before him had been behind the death of his family, by misleading the Imperials into thinking he was Lak Sivrak and had a connection with the Rebels. 

The two Shistavanens stared at each other intently, the calm before the thunder.


	20. Chapter 20

The Shistavanens circled each other, assessing the other’s strengths and weaknesses like any rival male wild animals would do when coming upon each other in a contested territory, only there was more at stake here than that. As Riv looked upon his enemy, an anger like he’d never known before rouse up inside him and his muscles tensed up, ready to spring upon the other, but he held back, waiting to see what he would do. He felt his hackles rise with his anger and he bared his fangs in aggression.

In contrast, Riv’s opponent seemed to be in control of his emotions, as though this confrontation was of little consequence to him other than to remove another rival. A cruelty gleamed in his eyes, however, which indicated that although he seemed in control, that he would take pleasure in tearing the other Shistavanen to pieces. Only love for Riv’s lost family reflected in his eyes, though, and that was the difference between them.

Riv finally broke the tension in the air, and growled his hated enemy’s name, “Fenrir.”

Riv expected Fenrir to gloat as he revealed to his enemy that he knew who he was, what he had done to his family, but Fenrir didn’t speak a word. Instead, as if he’d been waiting for Riv’s acknowledgement of him to be his cue, without warning, Fenrir attacked, a ball of savage fury and snapping jaws. Riv had been ready for Fenrir’s onslaught, but even he was taken aback by Fenrir’s sudden and undisciplined attack.

All pretence of civilisation vanished in an instant as each fought as wild, primitive animals, rather than the sentient beings they were. Riv tasted his own blood as Fenrir’s teeth clamped on to his muzzle. Growling deep in his throat, Riv thrashed in his grip, trying to shake his opponent off as a beast in a similar situation would have done, but then he remembered his arms and pushed Fenrir away. More pain raked along his muzzle as Fenrir’s grip was forced free but this pain only served to spur Riv on rather than deter him as he used his weight to gain the advantage.

Riv went for Fenrir’s throat as he had done with the humans as instinct compelled him to do, but all he got for his trouble was a mouth full of thick, coarse fur. Riv pulled his jaws away and coughed and spat trying to rid himself of the fur ball in his mouth before he choked on it. 

Fenrir took advantage of the distraction and twisted out of Riv’s grip. Riv only recovered enough to catch Fenrir’s ear in his jaws and was rewarded with the taste of his opponent’s blood mixed with his own, it was not enough to hold him, though. Fenrir yelped as his own momentum tore his own ear to shreds.

Both now bloodied, the two Shistavanens broke apart to begin the circling ritual again as they panted from stress and to catch their breath.

As before, it was Fenrir who attacked first. He’d used the interlude to retrieve a vibroblade from a scabbard at his hip and slashed Riv across the chest. Riv had the strength to batter the blade away before it did any more harm and he heard the metal blade shatter as it crashed into the wall of the corridor, but it was at that moment that Riv felt like he could not win this fight. Beaten already, he knew and felt his body weakening from the toll of the recent stress put upon it. Blood gushed from the wound and matted his fur. 

As he faced Fenrir, he only hoped that he had distracted Fenrir long enough for Kaitlin, Kat, to get away, and after the loss of his mate and daughter, Riv almost welcomed the peace that the oblivion of death bring. As he recalled their loss, he was ready to join them, the image of their broken bodies the only thing he saw as Fenrir’s savage jaws slashed into his shoulder. But then, like a beacon of light, the memory of Kat coming to his aid pushed aside that impulse to give into the embrace of death, and he knew he wanted to see her one last time. That desire and nothing else gave him the strength to fight back, but he wondered if he’d left it too late.

Fenrir, Riv realised, wasn’t interested in making this just a quick, clean kill. His appetite for cruelty, for wanting to make Riv suffer, guided his actions and that coupled with the fact he had no justified reason to fight Riv, was his gravest mistake and one that would cost him his life.

Riv noticed as Fenrir drew back to snap at him again, that his earlier attack had not been so futile after all. Fenrir’s neck was exposed now, lacking its protective covering of thick, coarse fur, exposed enough for Riv to rip it out. Riv waited pressed against the wall, unmoving, as Fenrir’s teeth slashed him again, waiting for the moment when he could make his move.

When Fenrir pulled away to strike at him again, Riv struck first. Fenrir’s face, thinking Riv had given up the fight, took on a look of surprise as he felt Riv’s fangs sever his jugular vein. Riv tore and stepped to the side as Fenrir’s knees gave way and collapsed under him. Riv watched as Fenrir’s life drained into an ever-increasing pool on the floor of the corridor.

Though he felt weak, Riv ignored his own blood loss, from new wounds caused by Fenrir’s teeth and reopened ones from the interrogation. He tasted both his own blood, as his muzzle wound still streamed, and that of Fenrir, but he cared for neither of them. As he watched, Fenrir expired for one last time and drew breath no longer.

Fenrir’s life was no more and for an instant, Riv forgot that he had no pack to howl his triumph to as he held his head back and sang his victory to the stars. It was only when his call ceased and he heard no answering cry from his parents, brother, mate and daughter he recalled that he was alone. 

Fenrir’s destruction was nothing but a hollow victory, he realised, without them at his side. 

It was that knowledge that stole the last of his strength.


	21. Chapter 21

Alone after Shiba had gone in search of Kat, Flik waited a moment before pressing on. He had no idea where Azet could be in the complex, but that didn’t mean he lacked the means to find her. She wanted him to confront her, that much was evident via the Sith holocron she had sent him, so finding her shouldn’t be too difficult. 

He wondered not for the first time since learning of her survival what could have changed her so much, but having not seen her for more than twenty years, he figured that much would have changed in that time. If two governments could have risen and fallen in that time, then almost anything was possible. He himself was testament for that as well, having falling so far from being a Jedi that he became a bounty hunter after the loss of Auoura and Tek, and then taking up the mantle of being a Jedi again. 

Even before he and Shiba embarked on their mission to rescue Kat, he had closed off his sensitivity to the Force to hide his presence from Azet as he’d been sure she would send troopers at them the second they entered the complex. Having not received the reception he’d anticipated, Flik decided that there was little point in maintaining his defences. The reason for this was because using the technique of hiding his presence from her also closed off her presence from him.

Azet, having disposing of the stormtroopers, had no guards to send at him. He didn’t need the Force to suspect that it was a trap, but if he succeeded in dealing with her now, it would lessen the difficulty in freeing the Uvena System and prevent the rise of another Palpatine. That he figured was a risk worth taking, even if the action was more impulsive compared to what a Jedi would normally do.

Dwelling at the back of his mind was the faint hope that he could turn her back from the Darkside.

He opened himself up to the Force. As soon as he did this, he was hit with what could only be described as a wave of malevolent darkness. It was alien at first, because he’d never expected Azet’s presence to feel like that. It was blacker than Tek’s had been at the confrontation that had cost his son’s life. 

It took him a few minutes for him to recognise that it was Azet underneath the façade of malevolence, as she was so distorted compared with the Azet that he had known that he’d considered that until that moment of recognition that a being was masquerading as her.

Azet, the last time he had seen her in the flesh had been shortly after Auoura had left Coruscant, a few months after the Battle of Geonosis. For his conduct during that battle, he had been made a knight. Azet had looked up to him with admiration after that battle because he had saved her life at the skirmish in the arena and had prevented her from being left behind. Azet had been no more than a child then, being only twelve years of age. In better circumstances, a child Padawan wouldn’t have been there, but her Master had responded to the urgent call from the Jedi Council for all available Jedi to go to Geonosis. Flik shook off the memory of Geonosis. That battle had been a lifetime ago.

He proceeded towards what he perceived to be the centre of the darkness, rather like someone seeking the eye of the storm to gain temporary shelter from its wrath; only the eye of this storm was far from calm.

Even though he had resolved not to let the past intrude into the present, his last memory of Azet came to him unbidden, as if it refused to stay buried…


	22. Chapter 22

It was late in the evening and Flik, knowing that sleep would elude him, had decided that it would be useless to even attempt it, and headed for the Thousand Fountains, the most tranquil room within the Jedi Temple. He would at least get some peace there, even if to do so he would have to meditate. Once he’d arrived at his favourite spot, a sand stone bench flanked with shrubs from his mother’s homeworld at the edge of a pond with a fountain at its centre, Flik removed his outer robes. He draped them over the back of the bench before circling it and sitting down. 

It was ironic, Flik thought, that even though the Jedi made their home at what was thought by many to be the galaxy’s centre of civilisation, that they still sought out nature to bring calmness and serenity. If he took that thought further, he would have had to acknowledge that the reason he was there in the first place was that he’d surrendered to a facet of nature himself that was forbidden for the Jedi to even consider doing, but he was not in the mood at that moment to contemplate on the hypocrisy of the Jedi Order, so the concept remained unexplored. 

Flik tried to clear his mind of its turmoil in preparation for meditation, as a Knight should have been easy for him, but then as a Knight, he should have had more control over his base emotions, over his instinct, but he hadn’t. He wondered if he should have gone to the training room instead, but battling remotes wouldn’t have set his mind at ease either as it would have led to him wanting to strike out at something more real, even if that impulse was rooted in the Darkside.

Knowing that meditation at the moment was about as constructive as slicing through all the remotes in the Temple, he retrieved and unfolded the parchment from inside his trouser pocket, the thing that was the course of his unsettled state of mind. He began to read her words for the thousandth time that day, hoping that by rereading it, he would have become insensitive to the words, but they just stung as badly as the first time he’d read them that morning when he’d found it lying on Auoura’s coffee table when he’d gone round to visit her. 

My Dearest Flik 

It began, not Jedi Shirak, or Dear Flik, but My Dearest Flik, and it was those words that wounded him the most, because deep down the wolfman knew that Auoura didn’t want to leave him, but had to, that neither of them had any free will of their own. It was that paradox that annoyed him most about the Jedi Order, they wanted its initiates to be the Guardians of the Republic, but they weren’t supposed to care about whether its people survived or not and expected them to have no life of their own while they protected it. Flik pushed that frustration away as he read the rest of the letter. As he read the words, he could almost hear Auoura’s voice reading them with him.

I regret to inform you that I must leave Coruscant and go back home to Uvena III. Please don’t think any less of me, my heart. If the Jedi Council should ever find out about our relationship, they would force you to choose between your career and our hope for a family. I know that making you choose would destroy you. At least this way you won’t have to make that fateful choice.

Auoura

In pain, more than anger, Flik screwed up the parchment that crushed his heart and held it in his claws.

“Is there something wrong, Jedi Shirak?” a small, uncertain voice asked behind him. 

“It is none of your concern, Azet,” Flik replied.

Azet saw the parchment screwed up in his claws and guessed that it was the source of the Knight’s trouble.

“Can I see?” she enquired, as she sat down beside him. Flik glanced across at the female pup and suppressed the desire to shoo her away when he saw that something was bothering her.

“It is late,” Flik said brusquely. “Young Padawans should be in their quarters.”

Fearful yellow lupine eyes regarded him and Flik knew he’d been successful at distracting her attention from the parchment. 

Then she said, “I couldn’t sleep. Bad dreams.”

Flik nodded his understanding. Azet had been unsettled ever since Geonosis and the beginning of the Clone Wars. She had spoken about it to him before.

“Geonosis?” he asked.

“Yes,” the pup replied. “It’s always the same. I keep being left behind.”

“Have you told Master Boda about your dream?” he asked.

“I have. Master Boda just keeps telling me that it’s just that, a dream.”

“Then you should listen to her, Azet.”

“I know, but I don’t think it is a dream. It’s - ”

“It was a bad experience for one so young, Azet. You were never ready to face battle at Geonosis. Fear, however, is an insidious foe. You must learn to control it and then the dreams will go away. They aren’t real, Azet, and cannot harm you.”

Her yellow eyes flashed as she gazed at him. “You intend to go away.”  
*  
Flik looked at her in return, taken aback by her pronouncement. He didn’t want to reply to that. He had considered following Auoura, to convince her to return to Coruscant with him, but doing so would have serious implications on his station as Jedi Knight if he did so. 

“I don’t want you to leave me behind, Jedi Shirak.”

Being a Knight brought with it more freedom than being a Padawan, but he couldn’t take another Jedi’s Padawan Learner with him and he’d not been assigned one since he’d been made a Knight. Even if he had, he would have been disinclined to take that Padawan with him, as he would be risking their career as well as his own if he did go in search of Auoura, and that was something he could not do. 

“If I do go, it will only be for a short time, Azet. Master Boda will make sure nothing happens to you while I’m away.”

She looked at him with hopeful eyes. “But you will be back?”

“I will return, Azet. I promise you that. You won’t be left behind.”


	23. Chapter 23

“I will return, Azet. I promise you that. You won’t be left behind.”

Those fateful words lingered in Flik’s mind when he realised that he’d failed Azet. Was this what all the trouble was about? A promise he’d never intended to break more than twenty years ago? Those were the last words he’d spoken to her. Perhaps, in hindsight, he should have done as Azet’d asked him, and taken her with him. 

Shortly after he had found Auoura, Palpatine had declared his mother and her family outlaws, as she had objected to his polices, one of the first politicians to do so. He’d never gotten the chance to go back and collect Azet, even if she had been his Padawan. Just as his mother’s life as a politician had been over when Palpatine made that announcement, so had his career being a Jedi, though that point was mote has he’d done enough to warrant his expulsion from the Order anyway because of his relationship with Auoura. Branded as supporters of the Separatists, even though they’d never been in contact with any of them, Palpatine had perpetuated that lie to be rid of an opponent and possibly prevent his unmasking as being the Sith Master until he chose it. 

Besides, he thought Azet safe at the time, and had no reason to go back for her. Back then, he’d thought a life on the run was no place for her, just as it had never really been right for Auoura and his son, Tek. If only he had known that it would have occurred anyway, perhaps taking her with him would have been the lesser of the two evils and now she would be a Jedi. 

Flik reasoned that he had to be optimistic, however. Anther Force user could build up the ranks of the decimated Jedi, if she hadn’t gone too far into the Darkside. 

He entered the room where he sensed the centre of darkness. It seemed deserted, if he relied on his eyes alone, but something was there. He could sense its malevolence, which seemed alien at first, but after a few moments he discovered that it was a layer of protection to keep him from sensing the familiar, from knowing it was her, from knowing that it was Azet.

Flik grew weary of the charade, so he called out her name, “Azet!”

A moment or two later, Azet emerged to stand a metre or so away from him. It was not until he saw her in the flesh that the belief in her demise finally faded away completely. Not even the discipline installed in him during his Jedi training could have stopped the next words that came out of his mouth.

“I thought you were dead,” Flik said. “It’s good to see that you are alive after all this time.”

“So too, did many think the same of you, Jedi Shirak,” Azet said. “I wish that I could be as joyous at learning of your survival, Mizet’s heir, but now I’m going to have to kill you.”

Without any further warning, Azet hurled Force-lightening at him, which he barely had chance to block with his lightsabre.

“As you can see Jedi,” Azet put a sarcastic emphasis on the word Jedi, “I have grown more powerful since your abandonment of me, and your duty to the galaxy.”

“I had no choice, since Palpatine outlawed me and my family,” Flik bit back. “Even if the other Jedi had been in a position to protect us, Coruscant would have been no place for us. Besides, our presence there would have given Palpatine reason to make his move against the Jedi that much sooner than he did. My father and I exiled ourselves to prevent that.”

Azet’s yellow eyes blazed in anger. “You lie!” she barked, then more quietly but with no less venom. she added, “You left to be with that other female.”

Flik was taken aback by that pronouncement, but then looking back on events, he should have seen the signs. After his rescue of her at Geonosis, Azet must have developed a crush on him. It explained why she’d always hung around him and confided in him instead of her Master, as she should have done, as he should have encouraged her to do. The resentment she bore because of his rejection of her and fear in a time of war had been the foundations for this hatred, this need for vengeance.

“I smell human all over you!” she snarled. “So the rumours are true: you have taken a human lover. You are not only a traitor to the Jedi, but you are to your own kind too. She will have to die as well!”

Anger exploded inside Flik as the threat to his mate was revealed. “Leave Shiba out of this!”


	24. Chapter 24

Kat almost collided with Shiba as she turned around the bend in the corridor.

Her first words upon meeting Shiba were, “What happened here? Why are all the Stormtroopers dead?”

Her questions made it clear that Kat didn’t think she and Flik were responsible for the slaughter. Shiba shrugged her shoulders.

“My guess is that Sith is responsible,” Shiba replied, as she automatically checked Kat for injuries.

“I’m ok,” the human girl protested.

Shiba raised an eyebrow. “Who’s the doctor here?”

Kat made no further protest as she submitted to the examination: she figured Shiba wouldn’t relent anyway, her stubbornness born out of dealing with a sometimes uncooperative wolfman and children, and more importantly, that they would get back to Riv more quickly if there was no more arguing. Just as Shiba finished her examination, a loud, high-pitched cry cut through the air.

“What was that?” Shiba asked, glancing around in an attempt to find the source of the howl. Kat provided her with an answer.

“It must be Riv,” Kat said, gripping Shiba’s arm. “Come on, he’s in worse shape than I am.”

An amused smile crossed Shiba’s face. “Your friend that you picked up in the bar?” Shiba asked as Kat led her back the way Kat had come from.

Shiba’s query almost brought Kat to a halt. “Err, yes,” Kat answered, shooting her a quizzical look. “How did you know?”

“Long story: Flik and I have been doing our best to find you. Which way?” she asked, as they came to a fork in the corridor.

“This way,” Kat said, pointing to the right.

“Let’s go then.”

Knowing that the way was clear, Kat used little caution in leading the way back to the cell she and Riv had been imprisoned. On the way, they passed the interrogation room, and Kat winced at the memory of what had occurred in there. Shiba noticed her discomfort.

“Are you alright, Kaitlin?” she asked.

Kat waved the other woman’s concern away. 

“Nothing I won’t get over,” she replied. Couldn’t say the same about Riv, though, she thought, but she kept that line of thought to herself. Instead of voicing her fears about Riv, she said, “We must hurry.”

As they neared their goal, Kat wondered if Shiel was even still alive. The thought of him dead caused her throat to constrict, almost as much as the thought of her family gone would. It amazed her that the wolfman had come to mean so much to her in the short time that they had known each other.

Her first sight of him almost confirmed her fears and she almost slipped on the floor made slick by all the blood in her careless effort to be at his side. She found herself staring at the blood before turning her gaze to Riv. There was so much of it.

“This one’s dead,” Shiba announced, causing Kat to raise her head. Shiba was stood in a half-crouch over the body of Fenrir. Kat had to suppress a feeling of satisfaction at the news. She could feel no pity for the dead Shistavanen that had tortured Riv. Instead of focusing on that, she looked over Riv’s injuries. He sported a new wound to the shoulder and one gash across his chest, in addition to all the others, but the shoulder wound was the worst.

“Riv has a deep wound to his shoulder,” Kat reported as Shiba made her way over to them. Riv’s eyes flicked open and he tried to murmur the words, “Little lupa,” but failed as the words only came out as an unintelligible growl. 

“Don’t try to speak,” Shiba said.

“Don’t worry, Riv. My friend’s a doctor; she knows how to help you,” Kat said, stroking the fur on his head with one hand and gripping one of his with the other.

Shiba worked methodically to deal with the worst of Riv’s wounds as best she could with the little medical equipment she possessed. 

“We’ll have to get Lobo to bring the Warrior in,” Shiba said as she paused in her work. There’s no way we could get him out of here the way Flik and I got in, but even with this facility’s personnel dead, its defence systems could still be live and I have better equipment on the Warrior.”

Kat nodded her understanding.

“I can sort that out. Where’s the command centre?”

“According to the map Lobo got, it’s two levels up.”

Riv had drifted back into unconsciousness during that exchange. 

“We’re going to need a gurney,” Shiba said.

Kat suppressed a shudder. “There should be one in the interrogation room we just passed.”


	25. Chapter 25

“So, the darkness is close to the surface within you, Shirak,” Azet gloated as she deflected his green hued lightsabre attack with her own ruby-red bladed one. 

Flik responded to her gloat, designed to raise his ire, with a laugh, a low, mocking growl. The Azet he’d known would never have acted like this. He let the bounty hunter rise to the surface as he said, “Can we fight? That’s what you lured me here for wasn’t it? Or are we going to trade insults all night?”

Azet deactivated her lightsabre and took a step back from him, feigning calm level-headedness. Flik followed suit, but refrained from returning his lightsabre to his belt. 

“Fight?” If you join with me, Shirak, we could use our combined might to conquer the human ruled planets in the galaxy and free our people from their oppression forever.”

“That’s where your argument is flawed, Padawan,” Flik answered, using the opportunity to remind her that she had been an apprentice when the Jedi Order fell. “Our people are already free from the tyranny of Palpatine and Vader now that they are dead. Freedom from your attempt to replace one set of dictators with another, now that’s another matter.”

Azet’s muzzle wrinkled in a snarl as she replied, “I use them like your mother did, Jedi,” she somehow managed to keep the growl out of her voice. “The Archetype Warriors are in my service.”

Anger rouse within Flik, but he suppressed it as he said, “My mother never ordered the deaths of innocent children, pregnant and elderly women and the torture of men. If that is what you mean by service, Padawan, then you insult my mother and are lacking in temple education.”

He deliberately used the human terms, as a way of trying to make her see her error in judgement, but all it did was antagonise Azet further.

“You have been around humans too long, Jedi,” Azet snapped back. “I have gained much knowledge since the destruction of the temple, knowledge that never would have come into my possession had I remained a student there.”

She was hinting at the forbidden knowledge of the Sith, and that she was willing to share it with him if he came over to her side. He also got the feeling that she wanted him there, that Shistavanens would more readily support her if he were on her side. He could never betray the Jedi, or the memory of his mother by partaking in such an endeavour.

“Only knowledge of evil, Azet,” he said, without the hint of sarcasm that had been in his earlier replies. “There is nothing that you posses that I could possibly covet.”

“Given time you will, Flik Sivrak, when I have taken from you everything you hold dear,” Azet said with a smile that was a good imitation of a Krayt Dragon’s and adding, “Or would you once again allow yourself to become a lowly bounty hunter?”

She was threatening Flik’s family and reminding him of his time as a bounty hunter, a time when he’d committed many actions that he was not proud of, to goad Flik into losing his temper again. The use of his family name rather than the one he had taken as a Jedi indicated that she knew about his life as a bounty hunter. This time, he refused to take the bait.

Calmly, he said, “Even becoming a bounty hunter is better than being what you are, Azet. You accuse me of betraying the Jedi by falling in love with Auoura and by choosing exile.

“I have often wondered if I’d stayed with the Jedi if it would have helped or hindered them in their struggle, or if it would have made no difference. Now, it doesn’t matter. I made my choice and there is nothing I can do to change what has passed. 

“What I can do is change the future by the actions that I do now. Azet, if there is anything left of the Jedi within you, you would help the galaxy better by helping me rebuild the Jedi Order.”

For a moment, it looked as though Azet was going to consider his offer, but she shook her head, like a vornskyr would to discourage irritating flies bothering it as they buzzed around its head.

“You can’t seduce me with your lies as you once did, Jedi.”

Flik only had enough time to re-ignite his lightsabre before Azet attacked.


	26. Chapter 26

Shiba handed Kaitlin a blaster after they finished loading Riv on to the gurney. “It may look like the place is deserted, but we may find more like him,” she indicated the corpse of Fenrir. “around. You’d better have a weapon just in case.”

Kat nodded. She’d lost her lightsabre when she and Riv had been taken.

“Bet I’m gonna get an earful from Flik about losing my lightsabre when we meet up with him again,” Kat said, in mock trepidation as she accepted the weapon from Shiba. 

Shiba exchanged a stern glance with her, one that reminded Kat of her mother. “I suspect that Flik has more than just loosing your lightsabre to discuss with you,” she replied as she activated the stasis field on the gurney that they had retrieved from the interrogation room and brought back to the scene of Riv’s battle with Fenrir. Even though they’d not been in the room long, it had still given Kat the creeps and they had done a quick search for ironically, any medical equipment and drugs they had thought might be useful to aid in Riv’s treatment. (It wouldn’t do for interrogation subjects to die on their captors before they divulged their information to them.) Kat had no desire to go back there.

“This should keep Riv stable until we can get him onto the Warrior.” 

“That’s a relief,” Kat said, testing the weight of the blaster in her hands and checking the power pac. “Let’s go.”

They made their way to the nearest turbolift to get to level three, the floor level upon which the Command Centre was on. Level one was the designation for the ground floor and so on. The corridors were oppressive and as with the nature of such corridors made them feel claustrophobic. Kat sometimes wondered just how humans could stand living in the ferrocrete prisons they built for themselves. It was a far cry from the freedom of the farm on Chandrilla that was her and her family’s rightful home. The turbolifts were not much better.

“We should find a place to stow the gurney while we check out the Command Centre,” Shiba said when they exited the turbolift, the gurney floating on repulsorlifts between them.

Kat gave her a puzzled look. “Why?”

“We can’t depend on the fact that our Sith ‘friend’ killed all the Imps in the facility. Any that survived would have most likely holed themselves up in there because that’s where they control everything and it’s the most secure place in the base.”

“Oh yeah,” Kat slapped her palm into her face in embracement. “I should have known that,” she added sheepishly.

After a search of the corridor and nearby adjoining ones, they found a storage room and hid Riv’s unconscious body lying on the gurney in there. Shiba locked the door for extra protection, though they both hoped the steps were unnecessary. 

They paused outside the consulted the datapad that she’d downloaded Lobo’s map to. “The Command Centre’s that way,” Shiba said, pointing to the left corridor. “According to Lobo’s map.”

Shiba started down the corridor she’d indicated, but stopped and whirled around to face Kat.

“Wait,” Kat said. “If there’s anyone in there, I should be able to sense them in the Force right? We shouldn’t go barging in there without knowing what awaits us.”

“You’re right,” Shiba said.

Kat closed her eyes, more to aid her concentration than the fact that she needed to, and opened her mind, searching, feeling for life signs. She opened them a few moments later and looked at Shiba, anxiety written all over her face.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Shiba asked.

“Flik’s in there, with our Sith,” Kat replied.

“Great,” Shiba exclaimed.

Before Shiba could stop her, Kat sprinted off in the direction of the Command Centre; Kat’s only thought was to aid her Master.


	27. Chapter 27

Green clashed with red as Jedi and Sith battled. What Azet lacked in strength and stature, she made up for in speed and agility. Flik leaped to dodge a slash that would have sliced through his legs at the knees if he’d not anticipated it.

“You are stronger than I thought, old man,” Azet said as she brought her lightsabre up to block his attack.

“Less with the old, Padawan,” Flik answered, even though by now he knew they matched each other’s skills. He used the term to annoy her, to keep her off balance in almost the same way she used threats to his family to do the same to him.

Azet answered his goad with a series of frenzied attacks with her lightsabre, which was what he’d intended. Passion, though sometimes the Sith’s greatest strength, it could also cause them to make mistakes. Even so, he barely managed to block her swings and the speed at which he had to do so left him panting for breath.

Azet’s muzzle creased in an ugly smile that exposed her sharp teeth. There was little or no humour behind the expression. “As I said, old,” she growled the words.

Flik’s expression was the complete opposite, the light to Azet’s darkness. “With age comes wisdom,” Flik said, causing her to parry his swing. “and experience. These you should not over look.”

Azet’s yellow eyes blazed with anger. “And with it a failing body and an inability to adapt,” Azet retorted. She had a point, Flik had to concede that, but Flik wanted her to know that he was neither failing in body nor had he lost his ability to adapt.

“Arrogance and over confidence has been the cause of the downfall of many beings,” Flik replied to her challenge. “As have assumption and under estimation of your opponent.”

They exchanged more blows before breaking apart.

“So has concern for friends,” Azet replied. “A flaw that you have plenty in abundance.”

Flik simile grimly. “That may be true, Sith, but a friend, more than anything else can save your life.”

Azet’s eyes narrowed. “So, you have finally accepted the truth of what I am now.”

Flik shook his head. “You misunderstand my meaning, Azet. A friend can save not only your physical body, but they can give your life meaning, but only if you want it.”

Azet turned her back to him so that he wouldn’t see the tears that had begun to form in her eyes. Her voice was surprisingly calm as she replied, “Like you did by abandoning me, Shirak? My real friends are dead, Shirak, killed by Palpatine and Vader. The only meaning that remains in my life is to destroy those who put them in power.”

“Then we share the same goal, you and I,” Flik said.

Azet shook her head and turned round to face him, all weakness gone. “Not while you run with humans, Shirak.”

Flik inwardly cursed; he’d almost got through to her then. She lunged at him, lightsabres met in battle, red attacking, green defending. The two Shistavanens fought to the sound of crackling and hissing as their lightsabres came into contact. 

Kaitlin burst into the Command Centre, shouting “Master!”

Without taking his eyes off the attacking lupa, Flik called to his Padawan, “Stay back, Kaitlin!”

Kat watched the two Shistavanens fight, wishing she had possession of her lost lightsabre. She brought up her blaster, intending to take aim at Azet in the confusion of duelling lightsabres she got a clear shot at the black furred Shistavanen.

“Kaitlin, wait!”

Kaitlin fired, her shot going wide at the distraction of Shiba’s shout. A second later, Azet had wrenched the blaster from Kaitlin’s hands with the Force and the teenager found herself floating in the air. She cried out in pain as she was thrown backwards into the wall and then sliding out cold to the floor.

“Get out of here, Shiba!” Flik commanded as his wife started towards the fallen girl.

Shiba took no notice of him, to her own detriment as Azet used the Force to rip a monitor off a desk and hauled it at her. It struck her head and she crumpled to the ground just before reaching Kaitlin.

“No!” Flik barked, deactivating his lightsabre as he ran towards his wife and Padawan.


	28. Chapter 28

Kat groaned as she sat up in her bunk onboard the Forgotten Warrior. She knew where she was, but couldn’t recall how she had got there. The door slid open a few minutes after she had woken to reveal Flik standing in the doorway carrying a tray of what could only loosely be termed as food and a glass of nerf milk.

“How are you feeling?” Flik asked her as he set down the tray on the cabinet beside the bunk. 

“Rough,” Kat answered, rubbing her head to ease the pain there. “Headaches seem to be the norm for me these days. What happened?”

“The Sith knocked you out,” Flik answered. “She did the same to Shiba, but I managed to deflect the monitor she threw at her just enough so that it glanced off her. Still sent her unconscious for a time, though.”

“Riv?”

“He’s floating in Shiba’s bacta tank. Shiba said he’s going to be fine, at least physically, but it was a close thing. He’d have bled to death if you and Shiba had not got to him when you did.”

A faint smile blossomed on Kat’s face. “That’s good news. He’s tough, but I don’t think he could have taken much more of it and survived. What happened to her?”

By her, Kat meant Azet. “Azet escaped while I was seeing to you and Shiba.”

Kat grimaced. “So I guess we’ll be seeing her again.”

A glazed look came to the wolfman’s eyes. It’s like Tek all over again.

“Most likely, yes,” Flik replied and added, “though I do not relish the fact.”

Kat waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t. After a moment or two of uncomfortable silence, Flik reached inside his jacket and pulled out a black cylinder. “On a lighter note, I did find this.”

“My lightsabre!” Kat exclaimed as he passed it to her.

Flik’s expression was stern which wasn’t hard as he almost always wore that expression as he said, “I don’t need to remind you the importance of not losing it?”

Kat averted her eyes. “I’ll try not to let it happen again, Master.”

“See that you do,” Flik said, giving her a smile that somehow managed not to look menacing on the wolfman’s face.

“I also have news from Rivik. He and the rest of the Ackley succeeded in locating and making contact with Nidet and the remnants of the resistance in the Uvena System. If Azet and this Za character want a fight of this, then they’re going to get one.”

He reached across to squeeze her shoulder. “Eat your food and meet me in the cargo bay afterwards. We have much to discuss, you and I.”

Kat looked at the ‘food’ with an expression of disgust on her face. “Shiba warned me you wanted to speak with me,” Kat said.

“After you’ve eaten,” Flik said, patting her on the shoulder before he left.


	29. Epilogue

Riv stared at the waves breaking on the rocks below his feet. Since they’d had a shortage of bacta, it had taken Riv along time to heal because he’d had to have more archaic treatment after he’d been stabilised. The long course of treatment had meant that he’d been confined to the small medical bay for far longer than normal.

The only bright spot to the days he’d been forced to spend in there had been visits from Kaitlin. Otherwise, being confined to the same four walls had almost sent him crazy and as a consequence, his mood had rubbed off on Shiba. For that reason, Shiba had discharged him a couple of days sooner than she’d wanted to so she could prevent having an irate wolfman on her hands for longer than necessary. Riv had made it rather clear to her that he’d been locked up in enough cages recently.

The first thing he’d done after gaining his freedom from the medical bay had been to visit the final resting place of his family and he’d not realised until the moment he’d seen their graves, that much of his frustration had been down to not having said his last goodbye to them. After visiting them, he’d been reluctant to go back inside the base as he felt he needed his solitude. 

He caught Kaitlin’s scent before he heard her approach and decided that his solitude was worth being broken if he could have her beside him.

“I thought you’d be here,” Kat said, sitting down on the rocks next to him. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Grassland would be better; forest or mountains even more so, but after spending the last month or so cooped up in there, it is adequate,” he glanced over at her, her loose blonde hair blowing in the offshore wind. “It is better a thousand fold now that you’re here.”

Kat turned her gaze to watch the ocean swell. “I would have come out sooner, but I thought you would have wanted to be alone when you visited them.”

By them, she meant the graves, and that had been Riv’s first impulse too, to visit them alone, but now that the human was beside him, he realised it would have been a less solemn affair had she been there. He rested a hand on her shoulder.

“I wouldn’t have minded you being there, little lupa,” he muttered.

A pang of guilt shot through him as he thought about how quickly he was leaving his old life behind, but then Sharnni would never have wanted him to remain alone, would she?

Still, it was too early to tell if he and Kat had anything permanent between them.

Overhead the sky had begun to darken as the sun sank below the horizon. They sat in silence, neither feeling the need to talk. Riv turned his gaze from the ocean and looked to the sky. Kaitlin mirrored his movement and in continued but companionable silence, they watched the stars appear.


End file.
